Parks board backs 50/50 split for park impact fees, agrees to use $5.4M pool for bond shortfalls

The Parks and Recreation Board recommended that future park-impact fees be split evenly between district-level parks and citywide (regional) parks and voted to direct the existing impact-fee pool to cover shortfalls in the city’s signature parks bond projects.

Board members discussed equity between districts that generate large amounts of impact fees and districts that do not, and considered alternatives such as a 60/40 split or a small discretionary pool for emergency needs. Staff framed the change as a way to create district-based funding pools rather than drawing from a single citywide pool, and said the split could be changed later through an ordinance amendment.

Evette Matthews, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the city prepares an annual five-year Community Investment Plan and typically prioritizes general fund and bond dollars first, then uses park-impact fees to fill project shortfalls. “Right now every year we develop a five-year Community investment plan,” Matthews said, explaining how the plan and prioritization work and how district pools would be used.

Board discussion touched on statutory constraints requiring a connection between new development users and the parks funded with impact fees; staff repeated that Florida law requires that a fee be tied to the new users created by the development. The assistant city attorney reminded members of disclosure rules during a conflict discussion, saying Florida statute 112 defines relatives in a way that can require abstention for appointed officers.

A member disclosed a potential conflict—family members developing property adjacent to Smoker Park—and the assistant city attorney advised that the member should record the conflict; that member abstained from the allocation vote. The board then conducted a roll-call vote: the majority voted yes and one member recorded an abstention; the chair announced the motion passed.

The board also voted to move the existing impact-fee pool (referred to in discussion as roughly $5.4 million) to be available to address shortfalls in the parks bond signature projects identified by staff. That motion passed by roll call.

What happens next: staff said the allocation policy would be memorialized in an ordinance and could be revised later; the budget amendments and any use of the existing fund would go to the City Commission for approval as part of the community investment/budget amendment process.

Clarifying detail: during discussion staff repeatedly referred to the existing impact-fee balance as both "five and a half million" and "$5.4 million." Board members asked staff to provide more precise breakdowns of how much of the city’s Community Investment Plan is dedicated to parks as a follow-up.

The board moved on after the votes to the next agenda item.