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Executive Summary In response to high growth levels and the need to provide infrastructure to support this growth, Indian River County (IRC) implemented a Transportation Impact Fee in 1986. in 2005, the County adopted impact fees in eight additional program areas. The technical studies for all program areas were updated in 2007; however, these technical studies were not adopted. Of the nine program areas, only the transportation impact fee was later updated substantially in 2009 by an internally generated County update using data from the 2005 and 2007 studies, resulting in a fee reduction for almost all the land uses. The eight non -transportation program fees were slightly modified in the 2009 update. Since then, the County suspended the collection of five impact fee areas to promote construction during the economic downturn, and more recently extended suspension of correctional facilities, solid waste, and public buildings impact fees. Indian River County retained Tindale -Oliver & Associates, Inc. (TOA) to prepare an update study to reflect changes to the impact fee variables for all program areas. In addition, the direction received from the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) was to maintain the residential land uses at the current level and develop a methodology to reduce non- residential impact fees. To address the goal of reducing fees for non-residential land uses, TOA developed the Affordable Growth methodology, which takes into consideration revenues received from the existing development that will be used toward capacity expansion projects. As population growth rates decrease, the existing development's ability to assist in absorbing new growth's impact while maintaining the level of service (LOS) becomes more possible. The Affordable Growth method calculates the necessary impact fee levels to maintain the existing/achieved LOS given a certain level of non -impact fee funding at an estimated growth rate. It is important to note that the decision to fund capacity expansion projects solely through impact fees or through a combination of impact fees and other funding sources is a policy decision. This allows the County to contribute or limit non -impact fee funding in its service areas as appropriate based on its capital improvement planning goals and the level of impact fee revenue. In Florida, legal requirements related to impact fees have primarily been established through case law since the 1980's. Generally speaking, impact fees must comply with the "dual rational nexus" test, which requires that they: Tindale -Oliver & Associates, Inc. Indian River County September 2014 ES -1 Impact Fee Update Study 111