Higher school impact fees get first nod from Pasco County

Selling the Pasco County Planning Commission on the need for higher school impact fees wasn’t much of a challenge this week given that no aspect of Pasco is getting smaller these days — including the need for more classrooms.

Ray Gadd, Pasco’s deputy superintendent of schools said that when the last impact fee study was done in 2017, the cost to build Cypress Creek Middle School was about $178 per square foot. Recently the district built a school building that ran $390 a square foot.

The impact fee increase, he said, “is very much needed.” He also expressed gratitude that voters approved the Penny for Pasco renewal in the last election — sales tax funds that help the school district keep up with growth. Impact fees are paid by new construction to offset the cost of growth and for schools. That means funding to build new schools, add classrooms and buy buses.

Carson Bise, impact fee consultant, said new impact fees are set by looking at student population growth estimates, calculating how much the school district pays for new school land and considering how much construction costs have risen. The impact fee study determined that there will be 13,700 students generated by new housing units over the next 10 years.

The school district, he said, has plans on the table now to build 4,160 new spots for students at the Kirkland Ranch K-8, Skybrooke K-8, an addition at West Zephyrhills Elementary School and the Dayspring Angeline K-5, in the next five years. Even with those new seats, at the end of five years, the student capacity will still be at 99%, he said.

Without adding the extra space, that would be 105% of capacity.

Bise said it is anticipated that the district will also come forward with plans in that 10-year planning period for new permanent student spots at the high school level.

The added twist on resetting impact fee levels is that the state set limits on impact fee increases in recent years, which means that the new costs will increase incrementally over the next four years.

The impact fees proposed would increase from the current fee of $8,328 for a single family home to $9,328 in the first year of the new fees and then $1,000 added per year, reaching $12,328 by 2028. The impact fee costs for multifamily housing, such as apartments, will also increase incrementally from the current $4,884 to $6,389 and mobile home fees from $5,114 to $6,477 by 2028.

Gadd said the school district reached out to the Tampa Bay Builders Association early on in the process. Impact fees are always a concern for building interests in a community. He joked that when the 2017 impact fee study was done, an apartment building association voiced concern that increases in multifamily impact fees “would be devastating” to the apartment building business.

“I find that humorous given what has happened with apartments in Pasco since 2017.” he said, referring to the explosion in multifamily developments in the county.

School Board member Alison Crumbley said the Pasco County School Board is “strongly behind this” increase in the fees. She said the district has grown to nearly 90,000 students. ”Thank you very much on behalf of my board,” she said.

Planning commissioners voted unanimously to recommend the fee increase proposal to the County Commission. “You’ve got to do what needs to be done for the kids,” said Planning Commissioner Derek Pontlitz.

Hearings by the County Commission are slated for August 6 and 21.