§ 56-22. Legislative findings applicable to emergency medical system impact fees.

The Board of County Commissioners of Columbia County, Florida, hereby finds, determines and declares that:

(a)

The emergency medical system is designed and intended to provide emergency medical services for all citizens within the county and is exclusively provided by the county; therefore, the emergency medical system impact fee shall be imposed throughout the county, including within the boundaries of the municipalities.

(b)

Development necessitated by growth contemplated in the comprehensive plan and the emergency medical system impact fee study will require improvements and additions to the county emergency medical system to accommodate the new development generated by such growth and maintain the standards of service provided by the emergency medical system.

(c)

Future growth, as represented by emergency medical system impact construction, should contribute its fair share to the cost of improvements and additions to the emergency medical system that are required to accommodate the impact generated by such growth.

(d)

The required improvements and additions to the emergency medical system needed to eliminate any deficiencies shall be financed by revenue sources of the county other than emergency medical system impact fees.

(e)

Implementation of the emergency medical system impact fee to require future emergency medical system impact construction within the county to contribute its fair share to the cost of required capital improvements and additions is an integral and vital element of the regulatory plan of growth management of the county.

(f)

The board of county commissioners expressly finds that the improvements and additions to the emergency medical system funded by the emergency medical system impact fee provide a benefit to all emergency medical system impact construction within the county in excess of the amount of the emergency medical system impact fee.

(g)

The purpose of this article is to require payment of emergency medical system impact fees by those who engage in emergency medical system impact construction and to provide for the cost of capital improvements to the emergency medical system which are required to accommodate such growth. This article shall not be construed to permit the collection of emergency medical system impact fees in excess of the amount reasonably anticipated to offset the demand on the emergency medical system generated by such applicable emergency medical system impact construction.

(h)

The imposition of an emergency medical system impact fee is to provide a source of revenue to fund the construction or improvement of the emergency medical system necessitated by growth as delineated in the capital improvement element of the comprehensive plan.

(i)

The data set forth in the emergency medical system impact fee study which was employed in the calculation of the emergency medical system impact fee rates imposed herein is the most recent and localized data available for the emergency medical system.

(j)

The administrative fee set forth in section 56-27(f) hereof constitutes the county's actual costs for collection of the emergency medical system impact fee including the actual costs related to the administration and the collection process.

(Ord. No. 2007-40, § 2.02, 10-18-2007)