{"id":124376,"date":"2026-01-20T01:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/124376\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T01:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:30:07","slug":"nassau-county-responds-after-florida-ag-says-county-cant-justify-big-impact-fee-rate-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/124376\/","title":{"rendered":"Nassau County responds after Florida AG says county can\u2019t justify big impact fee rate hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Nassau County officially responded on Monday<\/a>, days after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier spoke out against the county\u2019s bid to substantially increase impact fees and questioned how Uthmeier arrived at his position. <\/p>\n

Uthmeier said the area\u2019s recent population growth doesn\u2019t qualify as \u201cextraordinary circumstances\u201d needed to exceed state limits for impact fees.<\/p>\n

This comes just under a month after Nassau County commissioners voted to nearly double countywide impact fees over a four-year period and to raise mobility fees over two years, a move that has upset many local builders and real estate professionals.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s opinion<\/a>, issued Wednesday, responds to an inquiry from Rep. Richard Gentry, R-DeBary, regarding Nassau County\u2019s attempt to raise impact fees beyond statutory caps.<\/p>\n

Nassau County said in a statement that it prepared a study to detail the reason behind the hike. <\/p>\n

\u201cNassau County has long recognized that extraordinary circumstances must be supported by a broader and more comprehensive analysis of real-world infrastructure demands, costs, and measurable impacts on public infrastructure. This recognition is why Nassau County prepared an Extraordinary Circumstances Demonstrated Needs Study that identified and evaluated several key factors that, when viewed collectively, created the extraordinary circumstances justifying impact fee recalibration consistent with Florida Statutes: overall population growth; population growth exceeding University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) projections; increased permitting activity; significant land value increases; ballooning construction\/infrastructure costs; and higher levels of service for citizens\u2014all occurring during Nassau County\u2019s transition from a rural county to a county with small urban designated areas,” the county wrote in a statement. \u201cBased on a review of the letter requesting the Attorney General to render an opinion on Nassau County\u2019s impact fees, it appears the Attorney General was responding to a hypothetical question posed by a Representative, who represents portions of Volusia, Lake, and Marion counties. While the hypothetical situation does reference Nassau County, the question put forward to the Attorney General was not based on Nassau County\u2019s Extraordinary Circumstances Demonstrated Needs Study.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nassau County officials said they conducted an \u201copen, transparent, and engaged process\u201d over the last year that resulted in the adoption of \u201cproperly calibrated impact fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read the county\u2019s entire response, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Nassau County officially responded on Monday, days after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier spoke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28,116,118,117,3898],"class_list":["post-124376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nassau-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}