Transportation impact fee increase on the table at workshop

Reporter

County commissioners will hold a workshop Tuesday to review and consider increasing the transportation impact fee.

The fee cannot be used to resurface or improve roads. But it can be used to widen them or increase capacity. And that is exactly what is needed in Citrus County as it experiences growth pains and expected clogging of local roads, according to some board members.

Commissioners at a recent board strategic planning retreat discussed raising the transportation impact fee from the current 50 percent to 100 percent.

An impact fee is a one-time fee on new development and is borne by new residents.

Citrus County last updated its transportation impact fee study in 2021 and phased increases in over two years to 50 percent of the maximum calculated amounts. The current schedule became effective March 23, 2022.

But recent developments, including a surge in development applications and increased traffic due to the 2022 completion of the Suncoast Parkway extension into the county "have created an urgent need for additional funding for transportation capacity improvements," the county said.

Commissioners on Tuesday will determine if there are extraordinary circumstances that would allow the transportation impact fees to be increased beyond the phase-in limitations of the Florida Impact Fee Act.

The workshop begins at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Citrus County Courthouse at 110 North Apopka Ave., Inverness.

To view the workshop agenda, visit https://citrus clerk.portal.civicclerk.com/event/8292/files

At 1 p.m., commissioners will conduct their regular business meeting. Among the items to be discussed is the lifting of the countywide burn ban due to recent rains.

The board at that meeting will update residents on the Baker Act facility and the road conditions in Inverness Village 4. There will also be a presentation on the CORE Business Center.

To view that agenda, visit https://citrusclerk.portal.civicclerk.com/event/8161/files

Michael D. Bates is a staff writer with the Citrus County Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected].

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