Florida Senate - 2018                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 324
       
       
       
       
       
       
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                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
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       The Committee on Community Affairs (Young) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Section 163.31801, Florida Statutes, is amended
    6  to read:
    7         163.31801 Impact fees; short title; intent; minimum
    8  requirements; audits; challenges definitions; ordinances levying
    9  impact fees.—
   10         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Impact Fee
   11  Act.”
   12         (2) The Legislature finds that impact fees are an important
   13  source of revenue for a local government to use in funding the
   14  infrastructure necessitated by new growth. The Legislature
   15  further finds that impact fees are an outgrowth of the home rule
   16  power of a local government to provide certain services within
   17  its jurisdiction. Due to the growth of impact fee collections
   18  and local governments’ reliance on impact fees, it is the intent
   19  of the Legislature to ensure that, when a county or municipality
   20  adopts an impact fee by ordinance or a special district adopts
   21  an impact fee by resolution, the governing authority complies
   22  with this section.
   23         (3) At a minimum, impact fees An impact fee adopted by
   24  ordinance of a county or municipality or by resolution of a
   25  special district must, at minimum satisfy the following
   26  conditions:
   27         (a) Require that The calculation of the impact fees must
   28  fee be based on the most recent and localized data.
   29         (b) The local government must provide for accounting and
   30  reporting of impact fee collections and expenditures. If a local
   31  governmental entity imposes an impact fee to address its
   32  infrastructure needs, the entity shall account for the revenues
   33  and expenditures of such impact fee in a separate accounting
   34  fund.
   35         (c) Limit Administrative charges for the collection of
   36  impact fees must be limited to actual costs.
   37         (d) Require that Notice must be provided no less than 90
   38  days before the effective date of an ordinance or resolution
   39  imposing a new or increased impact fees fee. A county or
   40  municipality is not required to wait 90 days to decrease,
   41  suspend, or eliminate an impact fees fee.
   42         (e) Collection of the impact fees may not occur earlier
   43  than the issuance of the building permit for the property that
   44  is subject to the fee.
   45         (f) The impact fee must be reasonably connected to, or have
   46  a rational nexus with, the need for additional capital
   47  facilities and the increased impact generated by the new
   48  residential or commercial construction.
   49         (g) The impact fee must be reasonably connected to, or have
   50  a rational nexus with, the expenditures of the funds collected
   51  and the benefits accruing to the new residential or commercial
   52  construction.
   53         (h) The local government must specifically earmark funds
   54  collected by the impact fees for use in acquiring capital
   55  facilities to benefit the new residents.
   56         (i) The collection or expenditure of the impact fee
   57  revenues may not be used, in whole or part, to pay existing debt
   58  or be used for prior approved projects.
   59         (4) Audits of financial statements of local governmental
   60  entities and district school boards which are performed by a
   61  certified public accountant pursuant to s. 218.39 and submitted
   62  to the Auditor General must include an affidavit signed by the
   63  chief financial officer of the local governmental entity or
   64  district school board stating that the local governmental entity
   65  or district school board has complied with this section.
   66         (5) In any action challenging an impact fee, the government
   67  has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
   68  that the imposition or amount of the fee meets the requirements
   69  of state legal precedent or this section. The court may not use
   70  a deferential standard. Attorney fees may be recovered by a
   71  prevailing challenger to the implementation of an impact fee
   72  that violates this section.
   73         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.
   74  
   75  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   76  And the title is amended as follows:
   77         Delete everything before the enacting clause
   78  and insert:
   79                        A bill to be entitled                      
   80         An act relating to impact fees; amending s. 163.31801,
   81         F.S.; revising the minimum requirements for impact
   82         fees; allowing prevailing challengers to such fees to
   83         recover attorney fees; providing an effective date.