The Osceola County Commission Monday took under advisement recommendations on the method the county should use to assess fees for fire rescue service.

The commission has three options: continue the current flat rate system; base the rate on a building’s square footage and what resources are needed to fight a fire in a particular kind of building and the difficulty of doing that, referred to as capacity-demand; or a system based on property taxes.

The method recommended by the Fire Assessment Task Force, after several months of meetings and public hearings, was the capacity-demand method.

Part of the recommendation was that fee credits should not be extended to businesses for sprinkler systems, since such devices are required by building codes anyway, and that owners of agricultural land pay a fee based in part on what the Florida Department of Forestry has been charging.

Tony Iorio, task force chairman and vice president of development for Avatar Properties in Poinciana, said the recommendation is “sensitive to job growth” and making sure the new fees would be comparable to other counties in the region.

County Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. said smaller industrial warehouses, small businesses and some residential property will be hit hard by the new fees, if adopted, and that it would hurt the county’s economic development.

“We should look at buying down commercial and industrial property again,” he said. The county last year spent $4.1 million to reduce fees for certain kinds of properties.

Commissioner Ken Smith said he would like the county’s fire rescue advisory board and the fee task force to look at the county’s $23.9 million fire rescue budget, and possibly suggest cuts that would reduce the need to set the fire fees so high.

Commissioner John Quiñones said the new methodology is an improvement from the past but that he is concerned about the high fees proposed for certain kinds of property compared to last year.

Other commissioners also said they want to hear more about the “minority report,” a methodology based on property taxes supported by some members of the task force.

However, County Manager Michael Freilinger said a capacity methodology is preferred because all property owners would have to pay, with no exemptions for nonprofits or churches, and that the fee is based on fire risk, not property value.

Mike Horner, president of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce and a state representative, said Monday morning that the proposed fees need more work.

“Last year, the chamber led the charge to buy down fees for commercial and industrial properties; this year, industrial is getting killed,” Horner said before heading off to Tallahassee for the legislative session. “From the economic development point of view, industrial jobs are the kind we want.”

Horner said the methodology for the proposed fees ‘is reasonable’ but the outcome for certain groups “is skewed.”

“In this case, it happens to be the sector most important to our economic development,” Horner said, adding that large hotels under the proposed fees might not have to pay enough and that industrial properties and small businesses would pay too much.

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. Townhouses, 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. 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 pay $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 would also be charged a fee based on acreage.