§ 70-177. Method of payment of impact fee.

(a)

The person applying for the issuance of a building permit shall pay the impact fee prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, or the occupancy of the building. The county and any municipality with an interlocal agreement with the county shall issue an impact fee statement to the applicant for a building permit. Such impact fee statement shall set forth the amount of impact fee due.

The obligation for payment of the impact fee shall run with the land. However, this section shall not be construed to relieve an applicant of responsibility or liability for payment of the impact fees imposed by this article.

The obligation of a person to pay the impact fee imposed by this article shall not be extinguished by the inadvertent failure of the county to collect the impact fee at the time required.

In the event the impact fee is not paid prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy or the occupancy of the building for the affected impact construction, the county may collect the impact fee, together with interest from the date payment was due at the rate fixed by law for judgments, a penalty of five percent per month (not to exceed 25 percent), the costs of such collection and a reasonable attorney's fee. Interest and penalties shall be remitted for addition to the trust fund, and the recovered costs and fees for collection shall be retained by or remitted to the government incurring the expense of collection. The county attorney, or a duly authorized representative of the county attorney may execute, serve upon the owner by certified mail and record a notice of nonpayment in the official records of the county, which shall contain the legal description of the property and the amount of the impact fee liability. Said notice shall thereupon operate as a lien against such property for the amount of the impact fee, together with interest, penalties, and the costs and fees for collection, coequal with the lien of all state, county, district and municipal taxes.

In the event the impact fee rate for a particular land use is changed subsequent to the issuance of a building permit and before the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, the impact fee shall be the amount in effect on the date payment is received.

All impact fees due under this article shall become a lien at the time of the issuance of the building permit or, in the case of a change of use, upon the occurrence of the change of use or issuance of a certificate of occupancy for the changed use, whichever comes first, as the case may be. Such impact fees shall be due, and shall remain a lien, coequal with the lien of all state, district, county and municipal taxes, superior in dignity to all other liens, titles and claims, until paid. Such liens shall be upon the land on which an improvement is made requiring the payment of impact fees and shall be for the amount of the impact fee required, as well as for all penalties and interest due under the provisions of this article.

(b)

Payment of impact fees shall be made to the County of Volusia and any municipality with an interlocal agreement to collect impact fees for the county.

(c)

The payment of the impact fee shall be in addition to any other fees, charges, or assessments due for the issuance of a building permit. As a collection allowance for reimbursement for the cost of administering and handling of such impact fees, the collecting county shall be permitted to impose on and retain from each feepayer an administrative fee of three percent over and above the amount to be remitted to the school board under this section.

(d)

A municipality may, through interlocal agreement with the county, arrange for required impact fees to be paid directly to the municipality in accordance with the interlocal agreement. The failure of a municipality having entered into such an interlocal agreement to collect the required impact fee shall in no event relieve any person from the obligation to pay the impact fee imposed by this article.

(e)

Impact fees collected by a municipality under this article shall be handled in accordance with the interlocal agreement between such municipality and the county in effect at the time of such impact fee collection.

(f)

Impact fees collected by the county under this article (together with interest earned and credited thereon) and impact fees received by the county from any municipality shall be segregated and held separately from all other revenues in a separate account. The fees collected shall be transferred to the school board on a monthly basis, by the 15th day of each month, for those impact fees collected in the previous calendar month.

(g)

All impact fees collected or received by the county under this article shall be properly identified and promptly deposited in the Volusia Educational Facilities Impact Fee Trust Account. Funds shall be held in a separate account, as prescribed in section 70-178, and shall be used solely for the purposes specified in section 70-178.

(Ord. No. 97-7, § X, 5-15-97; Ord. No. 2000-26, § I, 8-17-00; Ord. No. 2003-04, § 2, 2-20-03; Ord. No. 2005-01, § VIII, 2-24-05; Ord. No. 2008-04, § I, 2-21-08)