County staff outlines draft transportation impact fees; commission asks for more data before vote

County planning staff on Tuesday presented a revised draft transportation impact‑fee study and asked the Board of County Commissioners to give direction on two main policy choices: which interest rate to use when annualizing capital costs and what percent of the legally allowable fee the county should adopt.

Jessica, a county planning staff member, told commissioners the study team proposed applying a 6% interest rate to calculate the maximum allowable fee and offered two example adoption scenarios (75% residential/50% nonresidential and 60% residential/40% nonresidential). “We are recommending that the 6% interest rate is applied,” Jessica said, describing 6% as “the maximum allowable impact fee that you can impose without doing another study.”

The presentation compared Okeechobee’s draft fees with surrounding counties and explained methodological choices. Jessica noted some land‑use units in the comparison relied on…