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Comprehensive Plan Capital Improvements Element Impact Fees/Capacity Charges Impact fees are charges to developers for off-site improvements that must be provided by the local government to serve new development. That financing technique is one strategy that the County uses to implement the CIE. Currently, the County has nine impact fees in place; those are traffic impact fees, which became effective in 1986, and eight additional impact fees which became effective in June of 2005. Those eight impact fees are assessed for the following service delivery categories: solid waste, public schools, fire/ems, parks and recreation, correctional facilities, law enforcement, libraries, and public buildings. In 2009, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted to suspend five of the nine impact fees for a period of six months. Their intent in doing so was to help encourage development during the economic recession. Since then, the BCC has voted several times to maintain the suspension of at least three of the impact fees. Most recently, the Board of County Commissioners completed a review of all impact fees, and on April 22, 2014 adopted a revised reduced nonresidential impact fee schedule with an effective date of May 5, 2014 and adopted a revised residential impact fee schedule on October 14, 2014 with an effective date of February 2, 2015. For the new impact fee schedule, the Board of County Commissioners voted to not collect the correctional facilities, solid waste facilities, and libraries impact fees at this time. In October 1999, the county's water and sewer impact fees were reclassified as capacity charges. A capacity charge is a fee charged to the direct beneficiaries of water and sewer improvements in order to fund the capital cost incurred by the water and wastewater utility to provide capacity to serve new utility customers. Enterprise Funds Enterprise funds are used to account for operations financed and operated in a manner similar to private businesses, when the intent of the governing body is that the full costs of providing the service to the general public on a continuing basis be financed or recovered primarily through user charges. Currently, the County operates its solid waste services, golf course facility, building division services, and utility services as enterprise funds. As a tool for affecting the timing and location of development, user charges may be designated to vary with the quantity and location of the service provided. Thus, charges could be greater for providing services further from urban areas and less for distances closer to urban areas. In this way, user charges could affect the economics of development locating further away from urban areas. Analysis The analysis section of this element assesses the County's historic and projected revenue and expenditure patterns to determine the County's fiscal ability to provide adequate capital improvements. Those capital improvements have been identified in other comprehensive plan elements and are needed to meet the demands of existing and future development. Community Development Department Indian River County Adopted December I't 2020, Ordinance 2020-018 25