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Commission Considers Break For Developers

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

PLANT CITY - Commissioners are considering a new incentive program for residential homebuilders to help energize a stagnant housing market.

Their plan would use reserves from the city's general fund to pay for increases in transportation impact fees so developers do not have to.

Impact fees vary depending on the size and type of buildings. The impact fee for a medium-size home of 1,500 to 2,500 square feet — the most common house size in the city, according to the planning department — was $2,627 before the increase went into effect Oct. 1.

The fee for that size home now is $3,503, or $876 higher. The incentives proposed at Monday's meeting by Commissioner Robert Brown would cover only the fee increases. Residential builders still would pay base impact fee costs. Commercial developers would not be not eligible for the proposed incentives.

Transportation impact fees are one-time payments residential and commercial developers must make to the city before receiving a building permit. The fees fund road maintenance and improvements necessitated by new developments.

The commission will vote at a meeting Oct. 22 on capping how much the city would pay in impact fee increases per home. A cap, Commissioner Dan Raulerson said, "limits our risk."

Commissioners also are expected to decide how long the incentives will last. Mayor Rick Lott suggested six months, but Commissioner Bill Dodson said he was uncomfortable with it lasting longer than three months.

Dodson suggested a three-month trial period. If the incentives prove successful, the city could extend the program for three months, Dodson said.

Assistant City Manager Greg Horwedel gave commissioners a caveat.

"If this is wildly successful," Horwedel said, "and 500 homes come in, that would be a massive hit to the general fund."

Brown's proposal evolved from an idea Lott presented to commissioners at their meeting Sept. 24. To stimulate the housing market, Lott suggested delaying the transportation impact fee increases until April 1. Had Lott's proposal been approved, the delay would have affected residential and commercial development.

On Monday, the commission was set to vote on Lott's proposed ordinance when Brown introduced the incentive program.

Residential developers attending Monday's meeting urged the commission to delay implementing the impact fee increases — or finding any means to get the market moving again.

"Any [fee] increase right now would hurt the housing market," said Hugh Joiner of Lakeland, who represented the developer building the Walden Woods subdivision. "Current impact fee rates are 6 percent of the selling price of a home."

One permit for a single-family home was issued in September, according to city building department records. In September 2006, 60 permits for single-family homes were issued. During the height of the boom in 2005-06, about 30 permits were issued monthly, records show.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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