Smallest homes see biggest fees

Single-family homes with less than 1,500 square feet could see average impact fee increases of 80%, while homes with more than 4,000 square feet will see increases of just 25%, if Sarasota County commissioners accept the recommendations of a study by Duncan Associates Dec. 9.

Impact fees, which fund infrastructure, are collected on new homes and developments.  

Duncan’s study recommends raising impact fees with greater percentage increases for smaller homes than for larger ones, although larger homes would still carry higher fees.

Clancy Mullen, principal of Duncan Associates, said larger homes don’t contribute significantly more than smaller homes to the need for new infrastructure because they don’t cause proportionate increases in population.

Currently, a new home with 1,000 to 1,249 square feet carries average impact fees  of $3,360; for a home with 4,000 square feet, the current average is $5,365.

The proposed increases would raise impact fees for a home with less than 1,500 square feet to $5,300, where a home with more than 3,500 square feet would pay $6,683 in impact fees.

Those amounts are in addition to mobility fees — which range from $3,603 for a house less than 1,500 square feet to $5,389 for a house larger than 3,500 square feet — and a proposed school impact fee of $2,032 per single-family home. 

If all the new fees are approved, they would add $10,935 to the cost of a new home with less than 1,500 square feet.

Some developers, most of whom oppose any hike in impact fees, said this increase for smaller homes could affect a vulnerable part of the market.

Jon Mast, CEO of the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association, said the fee could prove prohibitively expensive for buyers of smaller homes.

“You keep adding these dollar amounts,” he said, “and it’s going to start pricing people out of these things.”

But local attorney and controlled growth activist Dan Lobeck argues that developers already are charging as much for houses as the market will allow.

“The price charged will not be affected by impact fees,” Lobeck said, “because (the industry) is going to charge the maximum price the market can bear regardless of impact fees.”

According to a memo from County Administrator Tom Harmer’s office, county staff recommends accepting the study, which would begin the process of reaching out to stakeholders.

The earliest fee changes could go into effect is summer 2016.

“We also need to ensure that we’re looking at long-term plans,” Beth Rozansky, impact fee administrator for Sarasota County, said. “Whether or not we recommend an increase depends on if there’s a true need.”