Seminole schools drop ball on impact-fee hike.
Thursday’s Orlando Sentinel editorial, “Don’t hurt Seminole’s schools,” about discussions regarding Seminole County Public Schools impact-fee increases, needs to be clarified.
The Seminole County School Board is legally responsible for providing a supportable impact-fee study, and the Seminole County Commission is responsible for implementing and regulating the collections of those fees. When the school district recommended increasing apartment impact fees by up to 400 percent over the established rate, it also proposed phasing in the rate of the proposed increase over two years to soften the shock of the financial impact of those tax collections on developers who were in the development process.
The Seminole County Commission has a longstanding policy of vesting developers who could prove they were in the process and had relied upon the current impact-fee rates for their project financing. Last year, Seminole County staff recommended to the County Commission that developers applying and qualifying under rigid review standards have a two-year vesting period at the original impact-fee rate.
So, we are not talking about all development, but only a small portion of the development that is already in the process. The County Commission rejected the School Board’s position for a reduced rate for all development the first year and instead increased the impact fees all at one time, but the commission provided for vested-rights status for a small number of developments. This actually would result in more money collected for school construction than the school district’s own proposal.
There are two types of housing: the for-sale housing generally provided by single-family home builders and the for-rent housing generally provided by apartment home builders. These are two different business models with different financing requirements. For the most part, the home builders are represented by the Greater Orlando Builders Association. The Apartment Association of Greater Orlando represents the multifamily industry and is comprised of over 80 percent of the apartment developers in Seminole County. The industry employs thousands and collectively has invested billions of dollars in construction.
The school district represented to the County Commission that it had spoken with all in the development industry and all endorsed the proposal. The school district later acknowledged it had not spoken to the apartment association. The AAGO, which I oversee, got involved in January, and it certainly should have done so earlier. While both parties share the blame, it in no way discounts the argument of fairness the County Commission is trying to employ. The commission should not be criticized for doing what is right.
On the other hand, the school district grossly overstated by millions of dollars the effect of providing a two-year window for apartment development. The school district also unfairly attacked the multifamily-development community and the Seminole County Commission and its staff. We hope the school district tones down its disruptive hyperbole so that positive relations and good public policy for the entire community may be achieved.
In that vain, at a meeting on Tuesday, the Seminole commission extended vesting rights for all qualified developments from 12 to 18 months. The Apartment Association of Greater Orlando thinks this is a fair compromise.