Tavares council adopts major increase to municipal impact fees after public debate

The Tavares City Council on May 7 adopted Ordinance 2025‑04, updating municipal impact fees for police, fire and parks and establishing a new general‑government fee, following two publicly noticed workshops and a consultant presentation.

The change, presented by consultant Michelle Galvin, updates fees last set in 2006 and reflects rising capital costs and projected growth. Galvin said the study calculated existing capital investment and future growth‑related needs, producing proposed fee increases that would raise the combined fee on a single‑family home to about $3,500 from roughly $1,000. "Impact fees are one‑time charges charged to new development to recover the cost needed to accommodate the demands of growth," Galvin told the council.

Council members and members of the public debated the size and pace of the increase. Bill Josh, a Tavares resident and former planning‑board participant, said he supports raising fees to align Tavares with neighboring communities and to make new development help cover service costs. "We need the public resources...I think that the increase of these impact fees bring us more in line," Josh said. Danielle Stroud, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Lake‑Sumter, said higher fees would be passed on to homebuyers and urged the council to consider the effect on affordable homebuyers: "The increase in fees...is very much what's going to be passed through to the end user," she said. Christie Folker of the Lake & Sumter Home Builders Association urged a phased approach, calling a sudden 233% hike a burden on projects already in process.

Council discussion focused on policy tradeoffs between protecting current taxpayers and ensuring growth funds new facilities. Several council members argued that growth must pay for growth and that delaying the increase would shift costs to current residents. City staff and the city attorney confirmed the council had satisfied statutory requirements for notice, workshops and consideration of "extraordinary circumstances" under the Florida Impact Fee Act (House Bill 337, 2021) and the cited local statutory provisions.

The ordinance received a motion and second and was adopted by the council at the May 7 meeting. The ordinance will take effect after the statutorily required waiting period for developments already vested; staff said approved projects in the pipeline are not affected. The council and staff said they will monitor implementation and provide clarifications on credits, exemptions and the separate impact‑fee accounting funds required by state law.

The council also discussed the consequences of phasing increases. Galvin said phasing would reduce near‑term revenue to pay for the five‑year capital improvement plan and that the city would need to cover the difference with general‑fund revenue if increases were spread out.

The final ordinance, Ordinance 2025‑04, directs staff to implement the updated fee schedule and comply with state reporting and accounting rules for impact‑fee funds.