Lee County Commissioners hold a public hearing Tuesday morning on a proposed moratorium of impact fees in unincorporated parts of the county to try to boost the local building industry.
Money collected by impact fees from new construction supports projects, including new roads, schools, parks and emergency services. The proposed two year moratorium on collecting the fees would mean an estimated $10.4 million loss for the county. But Michael Reitmann, Executive Vice President of the Lee Building Industry Association says Lee County has one of the highest impact fees in the state, and that makes our region less competitive when it comes to attracting new growth. “Not just in the building industry,” said Reitmann, “but all the related areas that are impacted by the building industry because we are, if not the primary, the second economic driver in Lee County. What I’m talking about are restaurants, we’re talking about furniture stores, any related industry.”
Commissioner Larry Kiker previously supported the moratorium, but now says Tuesday’s scheduled vote should be delayed at least 30 days to quell misinformation and better investigate the proposal.
“Quite frankly, dependent on your biases of whether you think you should or should not, a lot of time depends on how you interpret information,” said Kiker.
“So just based on all that, I’d just like to make sure everybody’s on the same page, that we have discovered all the different opportunities and possibilities together.”
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are considering a bill that would eliminate impact fees statewide for a three year period, unless a supermajority of commissioners in a given municipality votes to reinstate them.
