Per Clay County Ordinance No. 2005-43, a new residential development must contribute its fair share of the cost of capital improvements to the public educational system via school impact fees.  A school impact fee is collected from each contractor/builder upon issuance of a building permit. This applies to Clay County and associated municipalities.  Fees may only be expended for capital improvement and new school facility construction as delineated in the Impact Fee Ordinance.

Per Clay County Ordinance, evaluation of school impact fees is required every four years.  Current fees were set in 2005, based on a supplement of 2-mill Ad Valorem tax and various state new construction funding streams. There has been no increase in over ten years despite a reduction of the ad valorem tax to 1.5-mill and no state new construction funding. Basically the “the needle” is pointing the wrong way and the district is unable to keep up with expected growth let alone get ahead of it.

Subsequent Impact Fee Technical Reports were presented to the SBCC and BCC in 2009 and 2013 (2011 report).  Outcomes were met with non-concurrence and status quo votes. The economic down turn and cost burdens on new housing construction were cited as reasoning.

The right to levy impact fees is part of the police powers assigned to the Clay County Board of County Commissioners (BCC). 

In July of 2013, school impact fees along with the latest Technical Report appeared before the BCC.   Based on school board recommendation the BCC approved continuation (status quo) of the impact fees with no change to the fee schedule.  Also the next report review date was set for September 2017.

It is expected the BCC will support the School District recommendation for continuation (status quo) of the impact fees with no change to the fee schedule. 

There are over 900 relocatable classrooms serving the students in our County, which equates to over 38% of all SBCC classrooms. This is over two times the amount of Duval County Public Schools and almost three times the amount for St. Johns County Schools.  Impact fees are designated for new growth.  Impact fees are one of several funding streams that may be used to accommodate increased capacity and work towards decreasing the amount of relocatable classrooms across the District.

Though the Impact Fee Technical Report Update recommended the adoption of an increase in school impact fees, the Clay County School Board recognizes the hardship impact fees place on property owners in Clay County.  As a result, it is the recommendation the current impact fee remains the same until the next impact fee review cycle in 2021. The current educational impact fee is 65% of the 2017 Technical Report recommendation which is $7,034.00 per single family home, $5,979.00 per mobile home and $3,236.00 per multi-family home.   Foregoing the recommended increase in educational impact fees will require the Clay County School Board to pursue alternative ways to generate new revenue in order to meet strategic priorities in the face of continued declining state revenue.