The Home Builders Association of West Florida and several local homebuilders have filed a lawsuit against Santa Rosa County and the school district over its upcoming implementation of school impact fees, asking a judge to declare the fees illegal and to stop their impending collection.
The lawsuit, filed Friday afternoon in the First Judicial Circuit Court in Santa Rosa County, claims that there are flaws in the ways the school district's impact fee consultant calculated the amount of fees and the number of students impacted by new construction; that the ordinance unlawfully delegates county authority to the school board; and that the impact fees are "invalid, unconstitutional and illegal."
“As builders, we strongly support appropriate funding for education,” said HBA President Blaine Flynn of Flynn Built Inc. in a prepared statement issued by the association. “But we believe Santa Rosa County’s school impact fee has some significant legal flaws and poses a serious threat to affordable housing and economic vitality in our county.”
Impact fee ordinance drafted: How much and who will pay for new Santa Rosa County schools?
Santa Rosa County School District Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday, citing district policy to refrain from commenting on matters of pending litigation. Santa Rosa County Administrator Dan Schebler and County Attorney Roy Andrews did not immediately respond to the News Journal's request for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest escalation in the disagreement between the homebuilders and the school district over the implementation of impact fees to pay for new schools. Impact fees are one-time fees paid by the purchasers of new homes that go toward specific infrastructure necessitated by a growing population; in this case, the impact fees would pay for new schools in Santa Rosa County.
The county passed an impact fee ordinance at the behest of the school board in January for $5,000 for single-family houses, $4,000 for mobile homes and $2,750 for multi-family units. The county will collect the impact fees and distribute them to the school board, which will use the fees to pay for new schools.
The fee is slated to go into effect May 4. The County Commissioners are set to discuss delaying the impact fee implementation at their Thursday meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic, although the school board said last week it would not support delaying the impact fee any longer.
Impact fee: Santa Rosa School Board won't budge on impact fee start date during coronavirus pandemic
More than half of the school district's schools are at or over capacity, and the district says it needs to build new schools if the county is going to continue to grow and more children are going to need to be educated. But the HBA has criticized the way the school district has spent its budget, saying impact fees will only hurt working class families who are already struggling to buy a house.
In addition to the HBA, the plaintiffs in the filing include Flynn Building Specialists LLC, Henry Company Homes Inc., Adoor Properties LLC, Samuel Stevens & Associates Inc., Newman Rodgers Construction Inc., Pettinato Construction Inc., Timberland Contractors LLC, Mike Price Signature Homes LLC, Lister Builders LLC and Bell Lane Limited Partnership.
Annie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com or 850-435-8632.
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Homebuilders sue Santa Rosa County and school board over educational impact fees - Pensacola News Journal
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