City of Eustis workshop advances higher impact fees for police and fire; second reading of ordinance scheduled

City of Eustis officials on Sept. 29 heard a consultant presentation updating the city's impact-fee study and were told higher one-time development fees are needed to pay for planned police and fire facilities and apparatus; staff also answered questions about water and wastewater capacity and timing. The workshop concluded with staff noting the item will move to a second reading of an ordinance at a subsequent meeting; no vote occurred at the workshop.

Michelle Galvin of Raptellus, the consultant, told the City Commission the study updated the methodology and used recent local data to calculate fees for police, fire, parks, library, water and wastewater. She said the city expects considerable growth over the next 10 years and will need new facilities, vehicles and other capital investments to maintain existing service levels for incoming residents. Galvin said inflationary construction and vehicle-cost increases were a major driver of higher calculated fees and that the study follows statutory and case-law requirements for Florida impact fees, including the statutory cap on phased increases.

The consultant described how the study calculated fees: it summed existing investment in facilities and vehicles plus planned improvements needed for growth, allocated costs between residential and nonresidential development using functional-population and census data, and divided the result by functional units (for example, single-family units or 1,000 square feet for nonresidential uses) to produce per-unit fees. Galvin recommended adopting the fully calculated police and fire fees based on the extraordinary circumstances shown in the study and phasing in other fees consistent with the statute.

Galvin and staff cited the study's capital figures: roughly $2.6 million in existing police vehicles and equipment and about $6.4 million included for a planned public-safety complex; for fire, roughly $3.3 million in existing vehicles and facilities and about $13.3 million in future improvements (administration building, vehicle purchases, an additional fire station and the public-safety complex). Parks were shown with about $11 million in existing investment and roughly $2 million in planned improvements; the library has about $1.5 million in existing investment with about $2 million planned (the consultant said some grant funding was assumed). For utilities, staff and the consultant said the city has about $18 million invested in water assets with about $3.75 million of planned work (including an Eastern water plant/main expansions) and roughly $47 million invested in wastewater with just under $13 million of planned projects (plant expansion, lift stations, force-main and reclaimed-water lines).

On fees and phasing, Galvin presented per-unit figures from the study and recommended that police and fire be adopted as fully calculated under the extraordinary-circumstances provision while other municipal fees be phased in over four years. As an example presented in the workshop, the consultant said the residential police fee would rise to about $746 per single-family home under the study's calculation and that the parks fee phased in over four years would be about $898 by year four; the consultant described wastewater and water fees as being recommended for phased increases consistent with the statutory cap rather than the extraordinary-circumstance full amount. (The consultant repeatedly said the study follows the “rational nexus” approach required by the Florida impact-fee statute and that fees do not fund existing service deficiencies or ongoing operations.)

Commissioners and staff asked technical questions about what the presentation labeled "expansion" projects for utilities. Eric, identified in the meeting as the city’s director of engineering, said wastewater treatment is currently operating at roughly 20–22 percent of its one-million-gallon-per-day plant capacity (staff reported the plant is processing about 200,000–210,000 gallons per day now). He said two large proposed projects, if both are built, would push utilization toward roughly 80 percent—the threshold at which the city must begin planning a treatment expansion under Department of Environmental Protection practice—and that if and when developers extend mains or request larger pipe sizes, those construction costs would be borne by the developer. Eric estimated that, if the large projects materialize, the time to reach expansion-triggering capacity could be on the order of five years, but he emphasized that timelines depend on developer activity.

A member of staff also updated the commission on continuing work with US Water about a possible utility-district model; staff said the company provided information but that the city would return to commissioners with more details before any change.

Two public commenters spoke during the workshop. Jennifer Pryor, introduced as a Eustis resident representing the Home Builders Association of (the transcript gives) Blake and Sumter Counties, urged that police and fire increases be phased in like the other fees so builders and lenders can plan for steady, predictable costs; she said impact fees had not been increased for about 20 years and asked for phased implementation. Danielle (last name given on the meeting card as Strab), identifying herself as a local builder and affordable-housing advocate affiliated with Habitat, also supported phasing and asked the commission to consider an affordable-housing impact-fee waiver or reduction program and to explore examples from other jurisdictions. Several commissioners and speakers raised the topic of an infill waiver program as a possible future agenda item.

No formal vote on the ordinance or fees was taken at the workshop. The chair noted this was the second extraordinary-circumstances workshop (staff said a prior workshop covered the same materials) and that the matter will proceed to the ordinance's second reading at a forthcoming meeting; staff did not record a motion or vote at the workshop. The workshop ended with the commission adjourning and a special meeting referenced to start at 6:30 p.m.

The study materials presented to the commission and the staff comments indicate the next formal decision point will be the ordinance's second reading, when commissioners will have the opportunity to adopt fees, set the phase-in schedule, or instruct staff to return with amendments. The workshop record shows two clear public requests to phase increases and to explore targeted waivers for affordable housing and infill development.