County Modifies Road Impact Fee Schedule With New Ordinance

The Miami-Dade County Commission adopted Ordinance 14-122, effective December 12, 2014, making several modifications to the County's Road Impact Fee schedule. A notable change is that the timing of the Road Impact Fee Present Day Cost ("PDC") multiplier increases in the Impact Fee Rate Schedule. Prior to the ordinance's passage, the Road Impact Fee rate adjusted on January 1 of each year, and April 22 of each year (with the last April increase scheduled on April 22, 2015), while other county impact fees, such as police and fire, adjusted on October 1 of each year. With the April 22 annual road impact fee increases, the impact fee charts have been modified three times per year, leading to a lack of predictability in impact fees. With the ordinance's enactment, the Present Day Cost multiplier for the Road Impact Fee will now be adjusted October 1 of each year. Therefore, the anticipated January 1, 2015 increase has been postponed and the current Present Day Cost multiplier will remain in effect an additional ten months until October 1, 2015 and will thereafter be adjusted in accordance with the County's fiscal year. The April 22, 2015 and January 1, 2016 County Road Impact Fee non-PDC increases are still scheduled to take effect. However, the result is a simplified process that aligns the Present Day Cost Multiplier Road Impact Fee increases with other County impact fee schedules and after 2016, there should be only one impact fee schedule per year rather than three schedules per year.

Additionally, the new ordinance adds over 20 new land use categories to the Road Impact Fee Schedule to reflect current development patterns in Miami-Dade County. The ordinance changes the rates in various impact fee categories. While some of the fees have increased, many of the fees have decreased, including the fees for residential development. Importantly, a new "High-Rise Apartment or Condominium (more than three floors) category. The impact fees for this new category is significantly less than fees assessed prior to the adoption of the new ordinance. Another significant change allows feepayers for quality or high turnover restaurants to request the fee be computed either per seat or per square foot.

The County's purpose in implementing the change is to allow for more accurate projections of how a development will impact traffic volume, ultimately ensuring feepayers are charged in accordance with their actual affect on local roadways.