Press Release
From Nassau County Board of Commissioners, 12-12-25
Dist. No. 1 Fernandina Beach/Piney Island
Dist. No. 2 Amelia Island/Nassauville
Dist. No. 3 Yulee/Wildlight
Dist. No. 4 Bryceville/Hilliard
Dist. No. 5 Callahan/West Yulee
Commissioners:
John F. Martin
A.M. “Hupp” Huppmann
Jeff Gray
Alyson McCullough
Klynt A. Farmer
Officials:
Taco E. Pope, AICP, ICMA-CM, County Manager
Denise May, Esq., BCS, County Attorney
Nassau County, Florida – December 12, 2025 — Nassau County’s impact fees have remained unchanged for many years, even as the cost of building essential infrastructure has continued to rise. Florida law requires local governments to periodically review and update impact fees to ensure they remain fair, lawful, and aligned with the actual cost of growth.
Unfortunately, following three public workshops where accurate information was presented publicly, misinformation is circulating about the purpose, collection, and necessity of impact fees. To ensure residents have accurate information, the County is clarifying the facts:
What Impact Fees Really Are
Impact fees are a one-time payment made by new development to offset the strain placed on public infrastructure—the roads, facilities, and parks we all rely on every day.
When new development does not pay its fair share through impact fees, the financial burden shifts directly to existing taxpayers, who must then cover the cost of expanded infrastructure.
For decades, Nassau County residents have been clear and consistent: new development should pay for itself, and the cost of growth should not be placed on the backs of current taxpayers.
Clearing Up Misunderstandings
Fiction: Cities and towns are required to collect County impact fees.
Fact: No City or Town is required to collect County impact fees. A City or Town may voluntarily choose to collect County impact fees.
Fiction: City and town residents/developers pay both City and County impact fees.
Fact: Only one impact fee may be collected for a given impact fee category of infrastructure.
- Callahan and Hilliard do not collect any County impact fees and are not required to in the future.
- Fernandina Beach collects only the mobility portion of the County impact fee and can amend its agreement with the County to cease collection at any time. Fernandina Beach does not collect any other County impact fee.
- Fiction: Impact fees harm affordable housing.
Fact: Nassau County offers impact fee waivers for qualifying affordable housing projects, reducing development costs and supporting housing affordability.
Fiction: Impact fees discourage economic development.
Fact: Nassau County has the ability to grant impact fee exemptions for eligible economic development projects.
Strong infrastructure—roads, parks, public safety facilities—is essential to attracting and retaining businesses and supporting a strong local economy. Properly calibrated impact fees ensure new growth pays its fair share to add need capacity caused by new growth.- Fiction: Impact fees will increase housing prices.
Fact: Market prices rose faster than construction costs, showing there is little to no correlation between impact fees and home prices. As demonstrated below, holding impact fees flat since 2020 did not result in home prices remaining flat. - Impact fees increased: 0% since 2020
- Construction costs increased: 37.2% from 2020-2025
- Median home prices increased: 60.1% from 2020-2024
- Average sales prices increased: 70.3% from 2020-2025
- Fiction: Higher impact fees make Nassau County less competitive.
Fact: On December 2, 2025, the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners adopted increases to their impact fees. The combined total of St. Johns County’s impact fees exceed Nassau County’s proposed increases.
Fiction: Impact fees unfairly burden a small number of new residents for countywide infrastructure projects.
Fact: By law, impact fees can only be used for capacity-adding capital improvements needed because of new growth. When new development does not pay for the additional infrastructure/capacity it requires, those costs fall on existing taxpayers. Growth should pay for itself and not be the burden of existing tax payers.
Fiction: Recent short-term [month-to-month] fluctuations in building permit applications is a justification to ignore
long-term stable trends over the past 25 years in setting properly calibrated impact fees to ensure new growth pays its fair share.
Fact: Month-to-month fluctuations in building permit applications happen for many reasons. However, looking at the growth in Nassau county over the last 25 years and the growth projections from both the State of Florida and the US Census Bureau for the next 25 years, it’s clear that Nassau County will continue to grow at a significant rate. In fact, data shows Nassau County is projected to reach a population of 192,000 by 2050.
In order to mitigate for the strain placed on existing infrastructure by a nearly doubling of the population over the next 25 years, it is critical that impact fees are properly calibrated to ensure new growth pays its fair share and the costs are not placed on the backs of existing tax payers.
Fiction: Impact fees are not needed because there are alternative funding sources to support construction of infrastructure that is needed to meet the demands of new growth.
Fact: It is true there are alternative means to pay for new infrastructure to meet the demands of new growth.
However, the primary alternative funding source to impact fees is property taxes. The Board of County Commissioners have reduced property taxes for five consecutive years. Properly calibrating impact fees today is one way the BOCC can continue to lower property taxes and ensure new growth pays its fair share. Growth should pay for itself and not be the burden of existing tax payers through increased property taxes.
The National Association of Home Builders (Impact Fee Primer, March 2025) supports this approach: “Using impact fees paid by new residents is a way for growth to pay for growth without increasing property taxes on the wider community.” – The National Association of Home Builders (Impact Fee Primer, March 2025)
