An impact fee is a charge that may be levied, requiring the developer to pay at least part of the costs of providing public services and facilities to a new development in order to maintain adopted level of service standards. These fees, however, rarely if ever come close to paying the full share of the impact of new development. 15 Impact fees are also limited by law to relieve only certain costs. They cannot include all the costs of providing public services and infrastructure, and cannot be used to fix past backlogs. In many areas of Florida, impact fees can raise the cost of a house by several thousand dollars.
Martin County imposes impact fees on new development for roads, parks, and recreation.
However, these are not sufficient to offset the full cost of providing public services to new development. Another tool to link public investment and manage growth is the use of urban service areas. Urban service areas are used to slow the premature conversion of land for development and limit the premature provision of new public services. They encourage the full use of existing facilities by encouraging new development to occur near existing development. Reducing the Public Costs of Development Local government, planners and concerned citizens are not the only ones recognizing that sprawling development has its drawbacks.