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Parks panel votes to recommend 49% hike to recreation impact fee
Summary
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend the city increase its recreation impact fee from $975.76 to $1,453.88 per dwelling unit, forwarding the proposal to city council for public hearings and final action.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the city increase its recreation impact fee from $975.76 to $1,453.88 per dwelling unit, a 49% rise staff said is needed to address facility shortfalls.
Richard Blankenship, Parks and Recreation director, told the committee that the current fee was adopted in 2001 and that Sebastian’s population has grown from roughly 17,000 then to about 27,000 in 2025. “The impact fee in Sebastian today is $975.76 per dwelling unit,” Blankenship said, adding that SCORP (the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan) level-of-service benchmarks show deficits in tennis courts and athletic fields.
Blankenship said impact fees can fund land acquisition, construction and upgrades that increase level of service and cited regional comparisons that range widely: “Rates around the area … go anywhere from $4,300 a unit to $182 a unit,” he said. Staff proposed a 49% increase—under the state’s 50% cap—to bring the fee to $1,453.88 and asked the committee to recommend that figure to city council.
Committee members pressed staff on scope and distributional impacts. A committee member raised concerns about whether the fee would indirectly affect low-income or retired residents; another clarified the charge applies only to new construction. “I just keep thinking of the retired people, the, you know, low income people,” one member said; Chair (S1) and Blankenship responded that the fee applies at permitting to new dwellings and is not charged on existing homeowners.
Chair (S1) made the motion to forward the recommendation to council; the committee approved it by unanimous voice vote. Blankenship said the state limits fee increases to 50% in a single adjustment and explained next steps: the recommendation will go to city council and be accompanied by two public hearings as part of council meetings (targeted public hearing dates were discussed for the second meeting in May and a meeting in June).
The committee’s recommendation is advisory; council action and public hearings will determine whether the fee is adopted and when it would take effect.
