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M I M The City of 'Vero Beach has also effectively adopted the policy that growth should pay for itself. Therefore, it assesses impact fees for the following public facilities: 1. Water Impact Fee 2. Sewer Impact Fee 3. Electric Impact Fee For both Indian River County and the City of Vero Beach, all new development must, prior to receiving some form of final development approval, pay any of the above impact fees which are applicable to the development project. This requirement applies to housing development projects, as well as commercial development projects. Impact Fee Characteristics In Indian River County, new housing development may be assessed a combination of Transportation, Water, Sewer or Electric Impact Fees. The specific fees imposed depend upon the location of the development. Each of these fee types, whether assessed by the County or the City of Vero Beach, relate to the anticipated needs of the County or City to provide the public facilities to serve new housing development. The following descriptions of each impact fee type are provided to present an overview: • Transportation Indian River County is the sole government agency responsible for imposing a Transportation Impact Fee (TIF) in the County. The County implemented its TIF assessment program in 1986. The TIF program assesses a TIF on all development within the County, including the County's municipalities: City of Vero Beach, Town of Indian River Shores, City of Sebastian, Town of Orchid, City of Fellsmere. It should be noted that, when the County established its TIF program, the County elected to discount all TIF amounts by fifteen percent (15%). The discount is intended to encourage a developer to pay the fee based on the County's general rate schedule. Alternatively, a developer may complete a fiscal impact study to determine the specific TIF costs of a project; however, if the developer opts to do a special impact study, the developer must pay loot of the impact cost determined by the prepared study as the fifteen percent (15%) fee discount will not apply. The County further adjusted its T.IF program by dividing the County into nine (9) Impact Fee Districts, each of which assesses different TIF rates for each identified use type. TIF funds may be spent only in the District from which the funds are collected. The only exception to this provision is that funds from the Districts may be used for improvements to the bridges, and their associated roadways, which connect the mainland to the barrier island. The County TIF program also included a provision noting that collected TIF funds which were not spent within six years would, at the request of the developer who paid the TIF, be refunded to the developer. Given the current rate of expenditure for collected TIF funds, however, no developer has requested or received such a TIF refund at this time. Additionally, a developer may request a refund of the impact fees at any time, in the event that the developer does not proceed with developing the project for which the TIF was paid. As noted, Transportation Impact Fee funds have been collected since 1986. Since that time, a substantial amount has been collected; however, as the following table indicates, the funds have. been .spent or encumbered at a substantial rate. MAY 189 1995 17 600K 95 Fa,UE 126