| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to the North Okaloosa Fire District, |
| 3 | Okaloosa County; amending chapter 2001-333, Laws of |
| 4 | Florida, as amended; authorizing the elected board of |
| 5 | commissioners to collect certain user charges and assess |
| 6 | certain impact fees; providing a definition; providing an |
| 7 | effective date. |
| 8 |
|
| 9 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 10 |
|
| 11 | Section 1. Subsections (3) and (4) are added to section 6 |
| 12 | of section 2 of chapter 2001-333, Laws of Florida, as amended by |
| 13 | chapter 2007-311, Laws of Florida, to read: |
| 14 | Section 6. Financial matters.-- |
| 15 | (3) USER CHARGES.--The elected board of commissioners may |
| 16 | provide a reasonable schedule of charges for: |
| 17 | (a) Special emergency services, including firefighting |
| 18 | occurring in or to structures outside the district, motor |
| 19 | vehicles, marine vessels, aircraft, or rail cars, or as a result |
| 20 | of the operation of such motor vehicles or marine vessels, to |
| 21 | which the district is called to render such emergency services, |
| 22 | and may charge a fee for the services rendered in accordance |
| 23 | with the schedule. |
| 24 | (b) Fighting fires occurring in or at refuse dumps or as a |
| 25 | result of an illegal burn, which fire, dump, or burn is not |
| 26 | authorized by general or special law, rule, regulation, order, |
| 27 | or ordinance and which the district is called upon to fight or |
| 28 | extinguish. |
| 29 | (c) Responding to, assisting in, or mitigating emergencies |
| 30 | to which the district has been called that threaten or could |
| 31 | threaten the health and safety of persons, property, or the |
| 32 | environment, including a charge for responding to false alarms. |
| 33 | (d) Inspecting structures, plans, and equipment to |
| 34 | determine compliance with firesafety codes and standards. |
| 35 |
|
| 36 | The district shall have a lien upon any real property, motor |
| 37 | vehicle, marine vessel, aircraft, or rail car for any charge |
| 38 | assessed under this subsection. |
| 39 | (4) IMPACT FEES.-- |
| 40 | (a) Because the general purpose local government has not |
| 41 | adopted an impact fee for fire services which is distributed to |
| 42 | the district for construction within its jurisdictional |
| 43 | boundaries, the Legislature hereby authorizes the North Okaloosa |
| 44 | Fire District's elected board of commissioners to establish a |
| 45 | schedule of impact fees in compliance with any standards set by |
| 46 | general law for new construction in order to pay for the cost of |
| 47 | new facilities and equipment the need for which is in whole or |
| 48 | in part the result of new construction. |
| 49 | (b) The impact fees collected by the district under this |
| 50 | subsection shall be kept separate from other revenues of the |
| 51 | district and must be used exclusively to acquire, purchase, or |
| 52 | construct new facilities or portions thereof needed to provide |
| 53 | fire protection and emergency services to new construction. As |
| 54 | used in this subsection, "new facilities" means land, buildings, |
| 55 | and capital equipment, including, but not limited to, fire and |
| 56 | emergency vehicles, radio telemetry equipment, and other |
| 57 | firefighting or rescue equipment. |
| 58 | (c) The board shall maintain adequate records to ensure |
| 59 | that impact fees are expended only for permissible new |
| 60 | facilities or equipment. |
| 61 | (d) The board may enter into agreements with general |
| 62 | purpose local governments to share in the revenues from fire |
| 63 | protection impact fees imposed by such governments. |
| 64 | Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law. |