Fort Pierce staff to craft annexation strategy to boost tax base and jobs

Planning Director Kev Freeman told the Planning Board on Nov. 10 that the City Commission directed staff to develop an annexation strategy aimed at increasing the city's tax base and jobs by prioritizing commercial, light industrial and retail areas north and west of the city.

Freeman said staff will coordinate with the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority (FPUA) to align annexation priorities with utility expansion and will prepare a fiscal "balance sheet" for each annexation proposal to quantify service costs and expected tax revenues. He explained that recent state legislative attention to residential ad valorem property tax rules motivated the directive and that the city must consider how to maintain services if revenue streams change.

Board members asked about impact fees and how a prior arrangement handled by the county affected the city's receipt of fees; Freeman said in the unusual prior case the county handled permits and impact fees and the city would not receive impact fees from that project but would obtain property-tax revenue after annexation. He said staff expects to present analytic templates and more detailed recommendations to the planning board before taking a strategy to the City Commission for adoption.