Impact fees — Palm Bay, Florida

A new detached single-family home in Palm Bay owes four city impact fees under Resolution 2025-33, for parks, police, fire and transportation, totaling $8,024.12 in the fiscal year 2025-26 column and $8,645.60 in the fiscal year 2026-27 column.

The Palm Bay City Council enacted Resolution 2025-33 at Meeting 2025-23 on September 24, 2025 (Resolution 2025-33, page 1). It took effect on January 1, 2026, and the fiscal year 2024-25 rates stayed in force through December 31, 2025 (Resolution 2025-33). The resolution text names that single effective date; it does not say on which calendar day each later fiscal year column starts to apply to a Palm Bay permit. Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay website and its American Legal Publishing code.

Parks and police charges hold flat for every Palm Bay house through the whole schedule: $1,310.08 for parks and $498.00 for police per dwelling unit (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-1). The fire fee climbs each year from $697.56 to $775.04, then $852.52, then $930.00 per dwelling unit. Transportation is the largest piece: a detached house under 1,500 square feet pays $4,897, $5,441, $5,985 and $6,529 across the four phases (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-1), and the Palm Bay exhibit lists the same figures for the 1,501 to 2,499 square foot and over 2,500 square foot bands (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-2). The totals row is arithmetic from those lines, for example 1,310.08 + 498.00 + 775.04 + 5,441 = $8,024.12; the City of Palm Bay does not print a combined figure.

Palm Bay spreads its 2024 impact fee increases over four fiscal years because the City Council chose a four-year phase-in after new police, fire and transportation studies, and Florida law limits how fast an impact fee may climb.

At Regular Council Meeting 2024-03 on February 1, 2024, at City Hall, 120 Malabar Road SE, the consulting firm Stantec presented the 2024 Police and Fire Impact Fee Study, which the minutes describe as an update to the study performed in 2018 (Palm Bay Council minutes, February 1, 2024). The minutes record a hybrid method combining a buy-in approach, based on the replacement cost of the departments' major assets, with an incremental approach tied to a multi-year capital improvement plan.

On July 18, 2024, at Regular Council Meeting 2024-16, the firm Benesch presented the Transportation Impact Fee Study update. The minutes state that the last update to the Palm Bay impact fees was in 2012 and that council concurred to implement the new fees over four years (Palm Bay Council minutes, July 18, 2024). Resolution 2024-31 then set a schedule running from fiscal year 2024-25 through 2027-28, effective January 1, 2025, with the fiscal year 2023-24 rates kept through December 31, 2024 (Resolution 2024-31). Resolution 2025-33 replaced it a year later and repeats the same single-family parks, police, fire and transportation figures.

The Florida Impact Fee Act, section 163.31801, frames those choices for Palm Bay and every other local government. An increase of not more than 25 percent of the current rate must be phased in over two equal annual increments, and an increase of more than 25 percent but not more than 50 percent must be phased in over four equal installments (Florida Statutes, section 163.31801). An increase may not exceed 50 percent of the current rate, may not happen more than once every 4 years, and may not be applied retroactively, unless a local government follows the separate extraordinary circumstances procedure in the same section. Local governments must also give at least 90 days of notice before a new or increased impact fee takes effect.

Palm Bay apartments, mobile homes and businesses pay the same four city impact fees at different rates, with businesses charged per 1,000 square feet or per unit such as a hotel room under Resolution 2025-33.

For apartments in Palm Bay, the per-unit charges are $1,063.04 for parks and $374.00 for police, and the fire fee steps from $551.87 in Phase 1 to $698.00 in Phase 4 (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-1). A low-rise building of one to three floors pays $3,228, $3,587, $3,946 and $4,303 per unit for transportation, and a mobile home park pays $2,401, $2,630, $2,859 and $3,088 per unit (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-2). Mobile homes carry a $937.31 parks fee and a $304.00 police fee per dwelling unit (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-1).

Commercial projects in Palm Bay are charged by floor area. The police fee is $573.00 per 1,000 square feet for retail and commercial space, $149.00 for office and institutional space and $60.00 for industrial and warehouse space, and the fire fee for retail and commercial space rises to $1,070.00 per 1,000 square feet from fiscal year 2025-26 (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-1). Transportation rates vary most. Office space is $8,293 per 1,000 square feet from Phase 2 on, and retail under 40,000 square feet of gross leasable area stays at $6,138 in every phase (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-3). A fast food restaurant with a drive-thru pays $35,708 per 1,000 square feet in fiscal year 2025-26 and $39,279 in fiscal year 2026-27, while warehousing holds at $1,308 (Resolution 2025-33, Exhibit A page A-4).

A home connecting to Palm Bay Utilities water and sewer also pays capital charges of $2,561.00 for water and $3,300.00 for wastewater per equivalent residential connection, set in Section 106.40 of the Palm Bay code effective October 1, 2024.

These charges sit outside the four-fee resolution. Section 106.40 of the Palm Bay Code of Ordinances sets them per equivalent residential connection, or ERC, and defines one ERC as 225 gallons per day for water service and 210 gallons per day for wastewater (Palm Bay Code of Ordinances, Chapter 106). A single-family home in Palm Bay carries an ERC factor of 1.000, so a house that takes both services pays $5,861.00 (2,561.00 + 3,300.00). Duplex and multi-family units with one or two bedrooms carry a factor of 0.833, and mobile homes with one or two bedrooms 0.667. The Florida Impact Fee Act states that it does not apply to water and sewer connection fees, so the phase-in limits described above do not govern these Palm Bay Utilities charges (Florida Statutes, section 163.31801).

Timing differs as well. Under the Palm Bay code, water and wastewater capital charges are due before a structure is connected, and no building permit is issued before the city receives all utility capital connection fees and charges, unless an ordinance, resolution or agreement provides another time (Palm Bay Code, Section 106.40). Owners of existing single-family residences where Palm Bay Utilities service is available may pay by installment. The Installment Payment Agreement becomes a lien on the property, and the unpaid balance becomes due on a sale, a transfer of interest or a refinancing.

Florida law bars Palm Bay from collecting an impact fee before the building permit is issued, and the Palm Bay code requires the money to be held in trust funds and spent on growth-related capital projects.

The Florida Impact Fee Act says collection may not be required earlier than the date of issuance of the building permit for the property, and new or increased fees may not apply to permit applications already submitted before the effective date (Florida Statutes, section 163.31801). The same section bars an impact fee for the reconstruction or replacement of a previously existing structure of the same land use that does not increase the impact on public facilities, a rule that matters for Palm Bay homes rebuilt after a storm or fire. Counties and school districts that impose impact fees are bound by the same statute, so the City of Palm Bay schedule is not necessarily the only impact fee on a permit.

For transportation money, the Palm Bay code creates the Palm Bay Fair Share Transportation Facilities Impact Fee Trust Fund, which pays for capital expansion of the major road network in a manner consistent with the city comprehensive plan (Palm Bay Code, Section 106.28). The city may keep actual administrative costs of no more than 2 percent of the funds collected. Each year at budget review, the Palm Bay City Manager proposes appropriations from the trust fund and the City Council approves, modifies or denies them. Fees not spent within seven years of the building permit are returned to the fee payer with 6 percent annual interest, less 3 percent kept to cover refund costs, and the council may extend that deadline by up to three years.

Palm Bay also lists an Impact Fee Payment Agreement fee of $750.00 under Section 106.22 in Resolution 2025-35, the fiscal year 2025-26 miscellaneous fee schedule (Resolution 2025-35, Exhibit A).

Palm Bay impact fee amounts are set by City Council resolution, while the rules for collecting and spending them sit in the Title X impact fee chapter of the Palm Bay Code of Ordinances.

City documents number that chapter differently. Resolution 2025-33 refers to Title X, Chapter 103 (Resolution 2025-33), while the American Legal Publishing edition of the Palm Bay code, supplement S-41 of 2026, shows Chapter 106, Impact Fees (Palm Bay Code of Ordinances). The City of Palm Bay Rates, Charges and Fees page groups the fees under Chapter 171, Fair Share Impact Fees, and lists Park, Police and Fire Impact Fees, the Transportation Facilities Impact Fee, and Water and Wastewater Impact Fees established by ordinance in Section 171.50 (Palm Bay Rates, Charges and Fees). The fee amounts in this guide come from the resolutions and from Section 106.40 of the online code as published on October 12, 2026.