There will be winners, there will be losers.

That’s how some members of the Osceola County Fire Assessment Fee Task Force at their final public hearing in early February after four months of meetings characterized the increases and decreases that certain types of businesses or homeowners in the unincorporated areas of the county might see in their next round of fire protection fees. The County Commission is set to review task force recommendations on new fees at 4 p.m. Monday.

The commission wasn’t entirely happy with last year’s fees and asked the task force to revisit them. The new fees, as proposed, would be based on what resources Osceola County Fire Rescue would have to expend to fight a fire (referred to as demand) at a particular kind of property with a particular square footage.

Owners now pay a flat fee based on the kind of property covered with no consideration for demand or square footage.

Some examples

Under the proposed rates, owners of small single-family homes of 1,100 square feet or less, for example, would get a break, with their rate dropping from $153 to $96.95. However, owners of homes of 2,000 square feet would see their bills go from $153 to $193.90. Town houses, condominiums and triplexes would see increases as well.

The owner of a small industrial warehouse of 1,404 square feet, for example, would see his bill go from $70.20 to $744.74. The owner of a restaurant with 4,280 square feet, for example, would see the bill go from $941.60 to $4,340.50.

Some large business operations with large buildings would see significant reductions in fees. A large resort, for example, with 1,406 rooms and 687,600 square feet of building space, would see a dramatic drop, going from $443,885 to $76,070. A very large distribution warehouse of more than 1 million square feet would see its fee go from $67,874 to $23,831.

Churches also would be charged a fee: a 5,118 square foot church, for example, would be charged $1,433. The owner of a 21.2-acre citrus grove would have to pay 49 cents for that grove, compared to no county fee previously. Vacant land also would be charged a fee based on acreage.

Comments

Dick Snyder, a task force member representing homeowner associations, said he believes the new fees would shift the financial burden onto certain residential property owners and smaller businesses from large commercial properties.

Town house owner Nancy Rice agreed.

“My town house would see a 75 percent increase in the fee,” she said.

Buenaventura Lakes resident Claire Dempster said Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center would have a fee less than 20 percent of the previous year.

“Residential is now being tasked with a larger percentage … why?” Dempster asked.

Adams Ranch Vice President Peter Harrison, representing this business sector on the task force, said Osceola County has a lot of “really big ranches” and that perhaps this class of property should be treated differently and should not be in the fee schedule.

Harrison said ranchers indeed should pay something and that the 2.31 cents per acre in the new fee schedule is reasonable, as long as it isn’t raised dramatically in coming years.

“We try to be good citizens and provide a service to the community,” he said. “We would pay our fair share – a $2,000 fee wouldn’t sink us.”

Recommendations

The task force at the Feb. 9 meeting agreed to make several recommendations to the County Commission. Among them were:

• Use the square-foot/demand methodology as the preferred way to determine the fee. In addition, the task force will provide information on a second methodology, based on property values.

• Do not offer a credit of 5 percent or 10 percent for commercial property with sprinklers, since sprinklers are required by building code anyway.

• And finally, the county should not use general fund money as it did last year to offset the fee for any particular group of property owners.