By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

To allow more time to gather information on the issue, the Osceola County Commission Monday delayed a decision on whether to adopt a moratorium or a possible 10 percent cut of county transportation impact fees for residential construction.

The commission in January approved a one-year moratorium on impact fees for non-residential construction as a local job stimulus but at the time did not include the residential sector. The moratorium covers projects with construction permits issued between Dec. 13, 2010, and Feb 1, 2012, with builders generally having 12 months to complete projects. Builders for projects of a certain size, however, could request extensions.

County staff reported that the revenue shortfall the moratorium would produce, mainly felt in the 2011-12 fiscal year, would be between $2 million and $2.5 million. Transportation impact fees cover the cost of road improvements required to deal with the additional traffic produced by growth.

Joe Johnston, the county’s customer-service manager for impact-fee administration, told commissioners Monday about projects that already have moved forward since  the moratorium was put in place: The Embassy Suites, a 300-room hotel and meeting center facility; two Family Dollar stores; and a new church in Celebration.

Other projects that may be started within the moratorium period, Johnston said, include a new Publix store, The Loop II and a new RaceTrac service station/convenience store.

Later projects for which some kind of deadline waiver might be needed are the new hospital in Poinciana, medical facilities on Narcoossee Road, the ChampionsGate expansion, Heritage Commons (near the intersection of Boggy Creek Road and U.S. Highway 192) in Kissimmee, several Wawa convenience stores, additional 7-11 stores and five day-care centers.

“It’s been good,” Johnston said, adding that with the impact fee moratorium, officials with Wawa, which is based in Pennsylvania, said they could add an additional store in Osceola County over what was being planned.

Commissioner John Quiñones, pushing for a delay in a decision on residential impact fees, said county staff should look at other previously high-growth counties that have moratoriums or reductions of impact fees and determine the impact.

“We do have failing roads and I would be cautious because we haven’t addressed this issue,” he said, worried about how to replace the lost revenue if the moratorium were extended to residential building, since about 88 percent of all new construction permits are residential.

Quiñones said commercial construction produces temporary jobs initially and then permanent jobs once a business opens, versus only temporary jobs with residential development.

“That is why I still have reservations about a residential impact fee moratorium,” he said.

Commissioner Fred Haw-kins Jr., however, took a different tack.

“I would go with spending some reserves to fund this; it would increase property taxes (tax revenue) and create temporary jobs,” he said. “I see a permanency in more jobs.”

Commissioner Frank Attkisson said he would rather see a lot with a new home on it than a vacant lot, adding that the county needs to develop a plan for funding transportation needs that do not depend on impact fees.

Commissioner Brandon Arrington, however, disagreed, saying that voters in November had a chance to fund road projects with a sales tax but rejected the measure.

“That means the brunt of funding new roads is with the impact fee,” Arrington said. “To incentivize more production with no demand doesn’t make good sense. I know that this summer we’ll be looking everywhere for the $2 million to replace the impact fees we have waived.”

Commissioner Michael Harford said he would not support a moratorium on the residential impact fees because it would produce only temporary jobs.

Harford, however, said he might support a 10 percent reduction in the fees due to lower construction costs, to go along with the requested reduction by the Osceola County School Board for school impact fees.

The commission then directed staff to gather more information on a potential 10 percent reduction in both the school and the county transportation impact fees.

Joe Volpe, spokesman for the Osceola County chapter of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando, in support of a moratorium or fee cut said building a home employs 10 people for a year and produces $4,300 in sales taxes, in addition to the new property taxes.

“Roads are failing not because of new growth, but because of people already here,” Volpe said.