The that started five years ago when Palm Beach Gardens began collecting a city fee from developers to help pay for local transportation projects and stopped collecting a county fee to pay for roads has spawned a new twist that echoes an old one: letters to developers demanding that they pay twice for their project鈥檚 impact.
When the in 2021, it sparked outrage from the business community, forcing the county to withdraw the letters and sue the city instead.
The county won , requiring the city to begin collecting the county road impact fees from developers once again. The ruling didn鈥檛 say the city had to stop collecting its 鈥渕obility鈥� fee.
The city challenged the injunction. It lost an appeal but didn鈥檛 start collecting the county fee.
Instead, it asked the court to clarify its ruling, a request that lagged in the courts for two years before .
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The county now says the city鈥檚 failure to collect the money merits sanctions.
鈥淚 feel confident in our position that they owe us the fees,鈥� County Administrator Joe Abruzzo told Stet News.
But the city says it doesn鈥檛 owe the money; the developers do.
Developers have 鈥榥o legal obligation to pay鈥�
In recent court filings, the county added up what it says the city now owes: . The county asked the court to sanction the city for withholding the money.
While impact fees, first enacted in 1980, pay only for roads, mobility fees allowed in the past dozen years can pay for alternative transportation efforts, such as sidewalks and bike paths as well.
Developers pay the fees before building to cover the cost of their project鈥檚 impact on the community.
Over the five years since the city stopped collecting the fee, development has been booming in Palm Beach Gardens.
The city continued to collect its own fee in the large swath of the city covered by the mobility fee (which did not include the huge Avenir and Alton developments) but did not renew its collection of the county fee.
The county .
In its request for clarification, it had no way of collecting the fee.
鈥淒evelopers who completed their projects and who have paid the fees assessed at the time of permit issuance have no legal obligation to pay additional impact fees,鈥� city attorneys Max Lohman and Scott Hawkins wrote.
While they awaited a court ruling, city officials went to Tallahassee that would require that no more than one fee be charged.
went into effect on Oct. 1, 2024. After that, the city says, the county鈥檚 road impact fee no longer applied in Palm Beach Gardens.
In April, the City Council passed a new mobility fee, asserting that it the county fee.
The state law gave cities and counties until Oct. 1, 2025, to decide how a single fee should be shared.
Palm Beach County and Palm Beach Gardens missed the deadline, unable to agree on a split.
Judge rejects clarification request
In August, Circuit Court Judge James Sherman threw out the request for clarification without explaining to the city how to collect the money.
鈥淭his court accepted at face value (the) city鈥檚 claim that it sought clarification rather than rehearing,鈥� . 鈥淎t the hearing, however, it became apparent that (the) city is not, in fact seeking clarification of the trial court鈥檚 order, but instead seeks reconsideration of the order on bases already raised at the time of the injunction hearing (in 2022).鈥�
On Sept. 12, the county asked for sanctions and estimated the uncollected fees amounted to $6.7 million.
The 鈥渃ity has conspicuously revealed its intention to disobey the order,鈥� .
She cited City at a March 2021 County Commission meeting, in which he said: 鈥淲e have over $25 million in undesignated reserves. We have a couple million dollars in mobility fees that we鈥檝e collected. If a judge issues an order 鈥� and says we have to pay it, we have to pay it.鈥�
Martinez pointed to city testimony explaining that the mobility fees included 鈥�(at that time),鈥� yet the city 鈥渁ppeared before this court suggesting financial inability to pay,鈥� she wrote.
Not 鈥榓 debt owed by the city鈥�
But the city to Martinez that it was indeed pursuing the money.
To do so, it sent letters to developers, adhering to then-Circuit Court Judge The order of telling developers 鈥渢o submit their plans, as completed, to the county for assessment of its road impact fees and to collect such fees from those developers and remit them to the county.鈥�
In letters to developers sent in mid-September 鈥渂y order of the court,鈥� the city tells developers who have completed projects between Jan. 1, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2024 (when the new law went into effect), that they must submit their plans to the county for assessment of road impact fees.
鈥淪uch fees,鈥� the city letter says, 鈥渁re to be collected by the city and remitted to the county.鈥�
that the city is 鈥渄iligently pursuing collection efforts鈥� but the fees are not a debt of the city鈥檚.
鈥淐ity staff are communicating with developers to make demand for payment of the county鈥檚 road impact fee,鈥� Lohman wrote. 鈥淗owever, the unpaid road impact fees do not constitute a debt owed by the city, as they remain the developer鈥檚 responsibility.鈥�
No leverage to force developers to pay
That brings the dispute back full circle to 2021, when the county sent letters to developers threatening to place a lien on their properties if they didn鈥檛 pay their road impact fees.
The proposal , with Michele Jacobs, chief executive of the influential Economic Council of Palm Beach County, telling county commissioners, 鈥淭his will create a black eye for us.鈥�
County commissioners ordered staff to back off, and two months later, .
Now, it appears unlikely developers will comply with the city鈥檚 request. Most have completed their projects. Some no longer own the property. The leverage to require payment before the project can begin is gone.
Jacobs, of the Economic Council, did not return phone calls to discuss the issue. The council doesn鈥檛 appear to have taken a position, but its executive board includes a key figure in the case, the city鈥檚 co-counsel, Hawkins of the Jones Foster law firm.
The court has scheduled a hearing on the county鈥檚 call for the city to be held in contempt. A full trial on the county鈥檚 request for a permanent injunction could begin as early as .
This story was originally published by , a SA国际传谋 News partner.
