More Bonita

• Bonita council puts a cap on bottle bill idea
• Thirty Southwest Florida students nominated to service academies
• Lee County leaders VIP bell ringing round the town

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Share and Enjoy [?]

FORT MYERS — Lee County road impact fees would go up as school impact fees go down under new recommendations received by county commissioners this week.

But a brand new road fee that would charge new mines millions of dollars is what has local miners digging in.

The road fee for a single-family home would rise 7 percent, from $8,976 to $9,634, assuming commissioners continue to collect the fees based on improvements to county roads only. The law allows the county to collect for state roads, too, since it has spent money on state roads.

Following that track would drive fees to $11,041, an increase of 23 percent.

Fees for schools are slated to drop by 4.5 percent. The slowing of student population growth and cheaper land for schools are both factors. The school fee would drop from $4,309 to $4,116.

The new mine fee, county Community Development Director Mary Gibbs said, is based in part on a truck traffic study that was done for the Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource area committee. The committee recently made recommendations that commissioners concentrate any new mines in the Alico Road corridor and prohibit them along Corkscrew Road.

The new fee for mines would be $2,866 per acre. Florida Rock executive Scott McCaleb, who sat on the DR/GR committee, said that’s just too much.

“The fee is too high,” he said. “It should only be paid on the acres mined, because of all of the setback requirements, reclamation areas, wetlands, and wetland preservation and mitigation lands.”

It matters. Florida Rock has plans for a new mine that covers 4,800 acres. About half would be mined.

If the company has to pay the fee on every acre, it would cost them $13.75 million. Paying only on mined areas would cost $6.87 million.

Richard Friday is an executive for Youngquist Brothers mines who also sat on the committee. He calculated the fee on the 1,365 acres in the company’s immediate future at about $3.9 million.

“Wow. What they’re doing is not going to collect on impact? It’s going to make mining uneconomical,” he said.

Friday and McCaleb finished on the short, opposing end of many of the recommendations the committee made.

“What they’re recommending is a 6-year process now, if everything goes correct,” Friday said. “That’s $3 million to $5 million in processing, carrying, engineering ...”

Friday said it’s clear mines aren’t wanted.

“What they’re basically telling people is they do not want mines in Lee County,” he said. “I think commissioners are going for it. I think they made it clear in their campaigns.”

Michael Reitmann is executive director of the Lee Building Industry Association. He’s lobbied against impact fee increases for years, and recently tried — but failed — to get commissioners to roll them back to help boost the sagging building industry.

“This is so ludicrous that all I can do is laugh,” he said. “How could any elected official, in a county with one of the highest unemployment rates, with construction down at least 50 percent and restaurants closing left and right, even consider it? But here they are. How dare they even consider raising impact fees.”

Commissioner Frank Mann said he’s not. He said he doubts raising the fees will find any support, and he will support the modest decrease in school fees.

“There was some hope around three or four months ago based on the construction costs we were seeing that we could reduce roads,” he said. “I’m disappointed those numbers didn’t hold up.”

Impact fees are based on complicated formulas that measure the impact residents of new homes — and new businesses — have on services. They are one-time fees collected when permits are issued.

Mann said he is glad to see a mine fee on the horizon.

“That thing I’ve been calling for six months,” he said.

Mann said he’s not sure the fee will work as it’s structured, but mine trucks do have to start paying for the use and wear and tear on the roads.

Bonita Springs resident Cullum Hasty, another DR/GR committee member, agreed with Mann.

“Absolutely truck traffic needs to pay,” he said. “It’s an equitable way. Let’s face it. That’s part of what they need to make their money.”

Hearings on the studies and the recommendations before various review committees are scheduled in September. Commissioners would hold their hearing on Sept. 23.