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Indian River County I Impact Fee Update Study Portability • Impact fees are attached to the project property and are calculated to mitigate the land use's proportionate impact on County facilities. Once that land use is permitted, the County will provide needed facilities as required by its own ordinances. If a land use is later proposed that has a greater impact on County facilities than did the previously approved land use, then, of course, impact fees for the new land use would be limited to an amount that simply reflects the increased impact. However, the question frequently arises of whether impact fees should be returned (in cash or as "portable" credits, for example) if the intensity of a land use is reduced or terminated in the future. "Portability," some argue, would allow the credit associated with tearing down a building to be used for another parcel. However, none of the jurisdictions we work with allow for the portability of impact fees that we are aware of, due to a number of reasons. First, local governments plan for capital project funding and provide infrastructure based on development in an area. As part of that process, impact fee revenues are programmed and spent for the construction of necessary infrastructure in the same district as the proposed use. Once the applicant has moved forward with its development, so too does the County with the development's needed infrastructure for that property in that area of the County. Once these fees are committed for use to serve a proposed development, they cannot be "uncommitted," and, of course, previously-built and contracted infrastructure improvements cannot be "ported" to new locations or benefit districts. Second, if the County "refunded" fees to properties that reduce or eliminate their impacts, those "refunds" (having now been committed to meet the needs of the initial land use) would necessarily redirect impact fees paid by others or general fund sources, creating a misallocation of burden between existing development and new growth. Third, during the typical construction timeframe, running from building permit issuance to certificate of occupancy, impact fees paid by a developer will not have been committed and spent by the County. Therefore, if a proposed land use pays Tindale-Oliver&Associates, Inc. Indian River County September 2014 10 Impact Fee Update Study