Builders' group drops impact fee lawsuit against county

The Collier Building Industry Association has dropped a lawsuit it filed against Collier County officials that contended the county’s government building impact fee was unconstitutional.

Under the joint dismissal order, CBIA is voluntarily dismissing its complaint without prejudice. That means the lawsuit could be refiled later.

Collier County is dismissing without prejudice all defenses asserted against CBIA, and each party will pay its own attorneys’ fees.

Mike Pettit, chief assistant county attorney, told county commissioners Wednesday the suit had been dismissed. County officials said they didn’t know why the suit had been dismissed and declined to comment.

CBIA President Al Zichella, Executive Vice President Brenda Talbert and CBIA attorney Mark Solov couldn’t be reached Wednesday to discuss the reasons.

CBIA spokeswoman Tina Matte released a statement that explained the dismissal of the lawsuit.

“While CBIA continues to believe the Government Building Impact Fee is wrong for a number of rational and legal reasons, the negative impact of the lawsuit on our organization has been unanticipated and unjust,” the statement said. “For example, several members of our board have been excluded from serving on county committees due to an ordinance excluding parties who have lawsuits pending against the county.”

After CBIA sued county government, William Varian, who was then CBIA president, was kicked off the county’s development services advisory board.

David Ellis, former CBIA executive director, was kicked off the county’s affordable housing committee.

Several members of CBIA also were rejected when they applied to sit on the county’s productivity committee.

The CBIA press release said the organization wants to reclaim its inherent right to engage in the government process. But, at the same time, it will continue to be vigilant in reviewing county policies and programs.

Money collected from the government building impact fee goes toward constructing government buildings that provide services to new residents. CBIA had argued the county can’t prove growth creates the need for more government buildings.

Impact fees are one-time assessments on new construction that are intended to make growth pay for growth. They are assessed for each new home and business built in the county and paid by developers, who typically pass them on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Local building industry leaders opposed the government building impact fee before it went into effect in April 2004. They contended the impact fee would discourage low-income homeowners and businesses from coming to the area because the fee makes it more expensive to build homes and stores.

After the impact fee was passed, CBIA sued.

Before creating the local government building impact fee, Collier County paid for the construction of government buildings out of its general fund, supported by property taxes.

Collier now has 10 impact fees. The fees also are charged for roads, parks, schools, fire departments, jail facilities and emergency medical services, water, sewers and law enforcement.

The cost of all impact fees is now about $30,000 for someone building a 2,000-square-foot single-family home. The government building impact fee was about $282 of that.