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Punta Gorda officials discuss impact-fee study, uncertain FEMA reimbursements
Summary
At a June 12 budget workshop, a resident and city finance staff discussed the city—s impact-fee review, timing for utility-related fees and outstanding FEMA reimbursements for seawalls and other storm-related projects.
A resident raised questions June 12 about whether the city is relying on FEMA reimbursements and whether Punta Gorda—s impact fees are set too low, and Finance Director Kristen Simonyo told the City Council staff are evaluating fees for utilities and public-safety projects while FEMA funding for some seawall work remains unsettled.
The comment period began when resident Gary Skelleborn asked whether the city faces an issue with FEMA reimbursement and said Punta Gorda appeared to have the lowest impact fees among neighboring cities. "Impact fees are a significant, not perhaps major, but significant, input to our budget," Skelleborn said. He urged the city to examine whether more of the projects on the capital list could be captured by impact fees.
Kristen Simonyo, the city—s finance director, said the earlier presentation to council covered "fair share" impact fees and that utilities are being scheduled for a separate review. "We have a rate sufficiency study to look at our rates as well as the construction projects, and then they—re also looking at the impact fees," Simonyo said. She said utility-related impact fees were to be presented to council in July (the date may shift from July 2 to July 9 pending consultant availability) and that any utility-related fee changes would need to follow statutory public-hearing requirements.
On FEMA, Simonyo said the city "does not know what will happen with the Federal Government" but that FEMA has approved some seawall assistance while excluding other seawalls the city has appealed. "They did exclude some of the seawalls that we feel should be included because they feel like that it was related to maintenance versus the storm," she said. Simonyo added the city is continuing to work with FEMA and state representatives on outstanding projects.
Why this matters: Impact fees are one of the revenue sources that can fund growth-related capital projects without raising general-tax rates. The city is reviewing which projects qualify as "growth related" under state law and noted that routine maintenance and neighborhood-specific sidewalk repairs are not eligible for inclusion in a citywide fair-share impact-fee schedule.
Additional details discussed at the workshop included that not every capital project may be eligible for impact fees (Simonyo said repairs to city hall, for example, cannot be counted unless the work is an expansion tied to growth), and that in exigent circumstances the city can pursue accelerated hearings to adopt larger increases than are otherwise typical under Florida statutes.
The city did not adopt any fee changes at the workshop; staff said consultants will return with the utility impact-fee analysis and public-hearing schedule.
