Impact Fees

The Citrus County Commission on Feb. 22 adopted a revised impact fee schedule that generally reduces fees and adopts the fees in the two largest categories at 50 percent of a consultant’s recommendation.

Citrus County School Board members and their supporters argued that the commission should adopt school fees, the largest fee, at 100 percent of the recommendation, but the commission kept the transportation and school fees at 50 percent of the recommended level, the level presently used for them in the schedule.

The new schedule of fees, with some changes and reductions in various areas of commercial and residential assessments, is set to go into effect June 2.

Commissioners have currently reduced the transportation impact fees, also called road fees, to zero, but that fee will be reinstituted in its new, reduced level when the new schedule takes effect.

Building industry representatives argued to keep the two biggest fees at no more than 50 percent of the recommended level so Citrus could be competitive with surrounding county regarding building new homes. The fees on the average new home dropped more than $1,000 and some commercial classes of buildings more significantly. The total fees for a 1,500 – 2,499 sq. ft. home went from $6,887 to $5,672.

The school impact fee is the highest of eight fees with the transportation fee not far behind. The other six, adopted at 100 percent of the recommended levels, are all considerably less. Commissioners, anxious to spur economic activity, emphasized at the meeting that anyone applying for building permits between now and June will get a break on the transportation fee.

The impact fee schedule will be put on the county website, www.bocc.citrus.fl.us, under the Planning Division, which is part of the Development Services Department. Call 527-4210 for information.

Port Citrus

Attorney Fred Busack’s Tampa/Tallahassee law firm does work for the local governments (it recently created the Transportation Planning Organization, or TPO for the county). Busack gave a presentation that showed how the Panama Canal is being enlarged to accommodate increasing larger container ships.

Because those container ships are the least expensive way to move good globally, because the shipping activity is increasing dramatically, because Citrus has a barge canal that Busack proposed could be developed as a port, and because that would-be port is already connected to the CVX railroad system (the second cheapest mode of container travel) that serves all the big eastern U.S. centers of commerce, the county is in a unique, once in a lifetime position both figuratively and literally, Busack said.

If the county can attain port status through legislative action in the upcoming legislative session, it can get access to money to pay for planning and financing a port that could take a piece of that shipping business, he said.

There is an urgency to get the status this legislative session, Busack said, because the other ports in the state and eastern seaboard will be gearing up for the expected shipping business through the Canal in the next few years. The expansion is expected to be finished in 2014.

Establishing a port and getting part of that global shipping business would be big economic boost for the county, he said, and ultimately could create thousands of jobs.

The commission felt it was worth trying to get port status in the upcoming legislative session, and it voted to allocate $50,000 for a lobbyist toward that end.

The presentation can be seen on the video portion of the electronic record of the meeting on the Citrus County Clerk’s Website. Go to the Clerk’s Website at: www.clerk.citrus.fl.us. Click “Board Agenda and Minutes” at the top right under “Online Search.” Then go down and click “Audio/Video” for the Feb. 22 meeting. When the video viewer comes up, use the pulldown menu to jump to “Presentation Citrus County Port.”

POW/MIA flags

The county commission approved POW/MIA flags to be flown at county buildings under the nation’s flag.

Rolling Thunder, of which Commissioner John “JJ” Kenney is a member, had requested the flags be flown by the county at its buildings.

Driver's license office lease extended

The county commission has approved a one-year lease for the current drivers license office building on State Road 44 in Inverness.

The $37,440 lease will allow the county tax collector’s office to take over the office and continue offering drivers license services until new office space is available in the Meadowcrest building that the commission intends to lease for additional space for a number of constitutional officers.

The state recently turned over the drivers license services to county tax collection offices and there was no room at the tax collector’s current Westside facilities.

The property appraiser and supervisor of elections will also be locating at the new Meadowcrest location. The current Westside satellite offices for the constitution officers is at the south end of the Crystal Square Shopping Center on U.S. 19 in Crystal River, and the constitutionals have told the commission they had to have more space. The drivers license transfer made the issue critical.

Looking at alternatives, commissioners decided moving to the Meadowcrest location was the best and most cost effective alternative. Details of the Meadowcrest lease with option to buy are expected to be presented at the March 8 meeting.

Beverly Hills Neighborhood Stablization grant

The county commission approved the county’s Housing Services Division to apply for a $1 million federal neighborhood stabilization grant that would be used to buy about nine bank-owned foreclosed homes in Beverly Hills.

As in previous Neighborhood Stabilization programs that Housing Services has administered, the homes would be bought, rehabbed and sold. The measure creates work for local businesses, affordable housing for low to moderate income families, and counters the neighborhood blight caused by foreclosures.

In conjunction with the federal grant, the Citrus County Economic Development Council will go for a $300,000 weatherization grant and, using some of the federal housing grant, will be able to leverage the additional money for weatherizing homes.

Budget Workshop on March 8

The county commission has March 8 as the date for a special budget workshop for the fiscal year 2011/2012 budget. The county’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to Sept. 30.

The workshop will be held in the county commission chamber at the Citrus County Courthouse and will begin at 9 a.m.

Water Conservation rebates

The county commission approved implementation of the 2011 Water Smart Rebate Program that will use up to $50,000 of a Water Conservation and Public Outreach Program grant matching fund to supply residents with rebates on certain water conserving appliances.

Such items will include ultra low flow toilets, rain sensors, high efficiency clothes and dish washers, and tankless water heaters.

Extra firefighters

Citrus County Fire Chief Larry Morabito told commission at the Feb. 22 meeting he had just received word that the county had been awarded a $3.86 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant (SAFER) for up to 39 firefighters.

The grant would pay salaries and benefits of firefighters for two years, but can not be used for equipment. SAFER grants were created to provide funding directly to fire departments to help them increase the number of trained, "front line" firefighters available in their communities.

The county recently hired nine firefighters to man a new station at Kensington on State Road 44 west of Inverness.

Morabito said there are some conditions, including a requirement for at least four firefighters per station. The county now has three per shift.

Morabito said he will have details and answers to commissioners’ questions about the grant ready for the March 8 meeting.