A. Duty to refund:
1. Fire and/or EMS impact fees shall be refunded by the Districts to the fee payer, or to a successor in interest, in the following circumstances:
a. Service is available but never provided;
b. A building permit, or permit for installation of a manufactured home, is denied by the City or abandoned;
c. The fee payer pays Fire and/or EMS impact fees under protest and a subsequent review of the fee paid or the completion of an individual assessment determines that the fee paid exceeded the proportionate share to which the Districts were entitled to receive;
d. The District(s) collected a Fire and/or EMS impact fee and the District(s) failed to appropriate or expend the collected fees pursuant to section below; or
e. Failure of the District to commence construction or encumber the fund in the development impact fee capital projects trust fund.
2. Any impact fee paid shall be refunded if the District has failed to commence construction of system improvements in accordance with this chapter or to appropriate funds for such construction, within eight (8) years after the date on which such fee was collected by the District. Any refund due shall be paid to the owner of record of the parcel for which the Fire and/or EMS impact fee was paid. The District may hold Fire and/or EMS impact fees for longer than eight (8) years if the District identifies in writing and in written notice to the owner of record of the parcel:
a. A reasonable cause why the fees should be held longer than eight (8) years; and
b. An anticipated date by which the fees will be expended, but in no event greater than eleven (11) years from the date they were collected. If the District complies with the previous sentence, then any Fire and/or EMS impact fees so identified shall be refunded to the fee payer if the District fails to commence construction of system improvements in accordance with the written notice, or to appropriate funds for such construction on or before the date identified in such writing.
3. No refund due for subsequent reduction in size of development or service units. After a Fire and/or EMS impact fee has been paid pursuant to this chapter and after a certificate of occupancy has been issued by the City, no refund of any part of such fee shall be made if the project for which the fee was paid is later demolished, destroyed, or is altered, reconstructed, or reconfigured so as to reduce the size of the project or the number of units in the project.
4. Interest. Each refund shall include a refund of interest at one-half the legal rate provided for in IC § 28-22-104 from the date on which the fee was originally paid.
5. Timing. Requests for refunds must be submitted to the appropriate District. The Districts shall make a determination of whether a refund is due within thirty (30) days after receipt of a written request for a refund from the owner of record of the property for which the fee was paid. When the right to a refund exists, the Districts shall send the refund to the owner of record within ninety (90) days after the Districts determine that a refund is due. The determination and issuance of refunds, along with required interest, shall be the sole responsibility of the Districts and not the City.
6. The Districts shall be solely responsible for addressing payments made under protest with the Fee Payer once said payments made under protest have been collected and remitted by the City to the Districts.
7. The Districts shall have no right or claim over any Administrative Fees collected by the City and said collected Administrative Fees cannot be requested by the Districts from the City in the case of a refund of the impact fee to the fee payer. Any deficiency to the impact fee as a result of the Administrative Fee collected by the City shall be covered in full by the Districts in the case of a refund. (Ord. 637, 8-23-2022)