City of Panama Beach issued the following announcement on August 3.
In May of this year, the Panama City Beach City Council approved impact fee increases for new construction. This only affects new construction and not existing properties with City utility service. These new water and sewer impact fees go into effect Wednesday, August 11. Fees can be paid prior to the deadline at the current rate.
Here's answers to a few of your questions on this subject:
- What are they? Utility impact fees are a mechanism to provide capital funds to construct or expand utility systems providing water and wastewater utility services required for growth.
Who pays them? Their premise is that “growth pays for growth” and they are only collected for new connections to the utilities systems. Existing utility customers DO NOT pay them, as they already did when they were connected to the City’s water and wastewater utilities.
- Are they a tax? They are not a tax but a user fee as they are based upon the number and type of plumbing fixtures in a given new connection. Development with a lot of high, water using fixtures (like apartments) pays more than one with limited fixtures (single-family residence) so the cost burden is proportional to potential demand.
- Why are they being increased? The City’s rate consultant recommends they be increased, based upon projected capital costs for system expansion and improvements to serve new growth and their timing.
- Can the impact fees collected be used for other purposes? No, impact fees can ONLY be used for capital improvements required solely due to growth. They cannot be used for replacement of any existing utilities or any of the costs for operation and maintenance.
- How much are they being increased? For customers within the City limits, the City portion of the water impact fee for a standard equivalent residential connection will increase from its current $557 to $727 or 30.5%. There is also a $650.50 water impact fee added for Bay County. Sewer impact fees per equivalent residential connection will increase from $2,989 to $4,628 or 54.8% connection for customers within the City limits; this increase is due to construction costs for additional wastewater treatment capacity.
- When will these impact fee increases go into effect? The impact fee increases were adopted by the City Council during their regular council meeting on May 13, 2021.They will go into effect August 11, 2021.
- Is there a way for to pay for impact fees now before the rate increase? Yes, customers can contact the City’s Utilities Billing Department and make arrangements for payment of impact fees prior to August 11, 2021.
Original source can be found here.
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