ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Developers who build in Orange County may get a break on how much they pay to make sure your roads, fire and police protection keep up with their construction.
Some commissioners told WFTV Tuesday that cutting impact fees by 20 percent is the only way to generate jobs. They're already crunching the numbers to see if the county can afford to give developers a break.
Orange County hasn't raised impact fees on new construction projects in years. Commissioner Ted Edwards is pushing a proposal that would further reduce rates by 20 percent.
"So we'll lose some money in impact fees, but hopefully we'll get more jobs going," Edwards explained.
But builders said even a 20-percent reduction may not be enough to make a difference.
Let's say a developer wants to build a 20,000 square-foot office building. The impact fees would total $150,000, and a 20 percent cut would knock off $30,000. Builders and contractors said that's not nearly enough to spur development.
"It's headed in the right direction, it's probably not enough to cause some developers to jump up and say let's start moving," said Mark Wylie of Associated Builders and Contractors.
Wylie and the Associated Builders and Contractors represent 500 construction companies in Central Florida.
Records show building permits are up 12 percent in Orange County. Still, this year there are only 45,000 construction jobs available. That is less than half of what Wylie's industry saw in 2006.
Wylie said, if developers are building they're going to states that have waived impact fees all together or in counties such as Osceola, which just eliminated transportation impact fees.
"Reducing it 50 percent or 100 percent for six months would have a significant impact for a lot of developers," Wylie said.
County staff hopes to have some numbers to present to the board in two weeks. In the meantime, there is also a task force working to streamline the building permit process, creating a one-stop shop for contractors at county headquarters.
WFTV
