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Proposed Ordinance Relating to Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Services Capital Facilities Impact Fee; Amending Hernando County Code to Reflect Abolition of Spring Hill Fire Rescue and Emergency Medical Services District and Hernando Beach Volunteer Fire Company
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BRIEF OVERVIEW
Hernando County Code § 23-48 currently provides for five fire protection and/or emergency medical facilities impact fee benefit districts:
(a) Those areas contained within the Spring Hill Fire and Rescue Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MSTU)
(b) Those areas contained within the Hernando County Fire Protection Services Unit
(c) Those areas contained within the City of Brooksville
(d) Those areas contained within the Hernando Beach Municipal Fire Service Unit
(e) Those areas contained within the Hernando County Emergency Medical Services District (those land areas of the County lying outside of the Spring Hill Fire and Rescue MSTU.
On April 13, 2012, the Florida Legislature enacted Chapter 2012-265 to abolish the Spring Hill Fire Rescue and Emergency Services District. Similarly, the Board of County Commissioners abolished the Hernando Beach Municipal Fire Service Unit on February 28, 2017, with the adoption of Ordinance 2017-8.
It is therefore appropriate that anachronistic references to the defunct fire protection agencies be removed thereby making the remaining benefit districts correspond to the geographic boundaries of the extant agencies in order to comply with mandates of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. Resultant changes to the Schedule of Fire and EMS Impact Fees are shown in Exhibit “A” of the proposed ordinance.
The proposed ordinance is intended to be prospective, not retroactive, in its application. In other words, impact fees already collected within the Spring Hill Fire Rescue and Emergency Medical Services Impact Fee Benefit District and the Hernando Beach Fire Protection Impact Fee Benefit District, provided that they continue to be governed by the Board of County Commissioners, shall be used in accordance with the existing Code of Ordinances. The trust fund for each benefit district shall automatically cease to exist once all of their deposited monies have been expended or refunded.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact.
LEGAL NOTE
The Board is authorized to act on this matter pursuant to Chapter 125, Florida Statutes.
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RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Board approve and authorize the Chairman’s signature on the attached proposed Ordinance.