$1.1 M impact fee may shoot holes in paintball field plan

[Junkie]

Citrus County Chronicle - Crystal River,FL,USA

Hugh McElvey isn’t a rich man, but he would have to be one to pay the county impact fees on his proposed paintball field in Crystal River.

McElvey would have to fork over more than $1.1 million if he paid the fees that take effect June 1. Impact fees for paintball fields are $38,672 per acre under the new schedule.

Read more: Welcome to Chronicle Online.com

[Grumpy]

Ah, your fine government money making bureaucracy at work!

[bearclawsusie]

The real irony of all this is...Citrus County and Crystal River Florida are home to Millennium Paintball Productions! Perhaps this will be remembered come elections..............................

[Scorch]

That's just a little over board if you ask me.

[JesterTLS]

Good, Ben can help vote the theives out of office.

Someone trying to start up an honest business where the people can play with proper safety equipment (chronos) and refs to keep everyone safe and the county does stuff like that.

[dead eye Chuck]

I wonder if anything like that applies here in South Carolina?

[bearclawsusie]

It is not just paintball ya'll...anything and I mean anything that threatens the local status quo is subject to the whim of our elected officials if we don't pay attention. It is our responsiblity as citizens to see that our ethics and values are being enforced. Our schools no longer have recess and instead advocate medicating our youth. Do you think this is in the students interest or someone else????????? Miniature golf in Citrus County (according to the article I read on junkie) is impacted at the rate of 2100+ dollars PER HOLE! Perhaps the mayor
's brother has a very successful mini golf he doesn't want challenged or perhaps the only land left is actually swampland(federally protected wetlands???) that really does impact a lot of people in Citrus County. Only by due diligence and regular attendance at public meetings can we keep tabs on what really goes on and why............. but the best part is that we can't complain if we choose not to.

[JesterTLS]

That is exactly correct. I work in local government and have for the last ten years. I know exactly what you are saying. Luckily we have some fairly level headed people on our town board and the county board does pretty good as well. But it is easy for them if they so choose to inact foolish rulings and ordinances. Citizens have to keep them in check. That's our job and duty. Just as it is in our federal government. And the citizens will show how that is done next year.

[WebFisher]

I was a recent citizen of Florida and we had the same thing when buying a home. We had our lot cost, construction cost, and our impact fees based upon the location of our lot. Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid it. Considering that they have no sales tax on food, no income tax, and much lower property tax, they feel that they can offset their lack of tax dollars with tourism taxes and other fees. Believe it or not, I can actually understand the impact fees and such, though I may not agree with them totally. It still seemed as if it was cheaper to live in Florida than SC. I do believe, however, that Mr. McElvey could petition to pay only one impact fee for his entire developement since it would be one giant facility that is spread over many acres, rather than an impact fee per acre. If I remember correctly, this is allowable in most cases.

[JesterTLS]

The population of Flordia and it's tourist traffic should make the state quiet wealthy with out fees that are that rediculous. Tenn has no income tax and so forth, but the tourist money more then makes up for it. Granted I do understand with all the wet lands they have to be carefull in FLordia, but man that sounds way too high. Even with being able to pay a single fee instead of a per acre, how many paintball field owners can afford that starting out?

Was the impact fee that insane on a regular piece of property for a dwelling??? If so, I will retract my gripe on the paintball hating polititians. I will however retain my stance that they are thieves.


I guess it is difficult for us (me) in other places to concieve those kinds of fees. Even if it is off set by lack of taxes and so forth.