Tavares, FL Nov. 5, 2018
The article is wrong, the meeting is not at 5pm, but is the normal time of 9am according to the County meetings and agenda page. They rarely have ever had evening meetings. The impact fees are covered in tab 23 of the agenda, found on the County website.
Here are my comments
Wendy Breeden is a great Commissioner, but she is affiliated with the local homebuilders, and they fight impact fees tooth and nail that would pay for expanding roads to meet volume created by new construction.
The result is that neighborhoods using County feeder roads are rising up, mad as hell, because of traffic jams and poor maintenance.
Property owners have risen up about planned growth on Shirley Shores Road near Tavares.
They have complained at the Tavares City Council about development approvals on Dead River Road.
They are aggravated over connector roads to the Villages.
And residents have risen up about Clermont approval for a Charter School on a two lane road with bad access points and no commitment to improve the road. Even the Clermont staff wanted to deny the permit but the City Council ignored them.
THEN there are all the parents angry that schools are built without sidewalks for the kids. Impact fees don't pay for maintenance, but the County has also put off funding for road maintenance from other sources hoping to use the "crisis" to jack up fuel taxes with a planned increase in fuel taxes. Voters should demand roads, not parks or bikeways or fancy new buildings be given priority to meet demands.
That means we need 100% impact fees just to pay for new costs to expand infrastructure needs caused by increased population. The County Board are nice people, but they need to focus on roads and not lower priority causes. Don't approve ANY permits for new developments until current roads and highways have full capacity and maintenance. That includes Sean Park's baby, "Wellness Way".
Make the developers pay for improved roads, and not pass the buck
http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20181103/impact-fees-top-lake-county-commission-agenda
Vance Jochim
FiscalRangers.com [email protected]
