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Nonprofit asks Hernando commissioners to waive or fund impact fees for affordable homes
Summary
YouthRite Florida House to Home asked the County Commission to consider waiving or covering impact fees for nonprofit-built affordable homes and to increase local SHIP funding, citing that impact fees pushed development costs beyond nonprofit budgets.
Richard Sabanero, director of YouthRite Florida's House to Home program, urged the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners during public comment on June 10 to consider options to ease impact fees for nonprofit builders of affordable homes.
Sabanero said his nonprofit paid about $10,000 in impact fees for a recent project and that the added costs make projects unaffordable for the low- and moderate-income buyers the program serves. He cited Florida Statute 163.31801 (as referenced in his remarks) and asked the board to consider either waiving local impact fees for nonprofits or increasing the county's allocation of State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) funds to help cover fees.
Why it matters: Local impact fees are one-time charges tied to new development; for nonprofit affordable-housing builders, fees can materially affect the feasibility of homeownership programs. Sabanero said nonprofits cannot transfer such fees to buyers and asked the county to take up potential policy changes.
Commissioner response: Commissioners said staff would research current county contributions to nonprofit housing projects, and highlighted that the county occasionally donates land and has previously offered a $50,000 grant to support affordable housing organizations. Legal and policy questions were raised about how an explicit fee waiver would be structured and whether it would require an amendment to the county's impact-fee ordinance. County attorney and staff advised that any broad change would require clear criteria and a formal ordinance change to avoid discretionary or inconsistent application.
Next steps: Staff said they would gather data on existing county support for affordable housing (donated land, grants, SHIP awards) and report back. Commissioners suggested potential inclusion in an upcoming inclusionary incentives policy being drafted by the Affordable Housing Action Committee, which the board expects to review in the next few months.
Authorities: The speaker referenced Florida Statute 163.31801 as a statutory basis for local impact fee provisions and exemptions; staff cautioned that any local policy change should be drafted to align with state law and to define automatic eligibility criteria if a waiver approach were adopted.
