In adopting a sewer impact fee and adopting regulations related thereto, the City Commission hereby makes and expresses the following findings, purposes, and intent:
(A) It is the policy of the City Commission to assist in the control of growth within the city.
(B) As a part of a total planning effort, the city adopted a wastewater master plan.
(C) The main objectives of the wastewater master plan are to define and meet the wastewater needs and develop a systematic approach to providing centralized wastewater services to the entire city.
(D) The findings, conclusions, and results of the wastewater master plan are hereby incorporated into these findings and this subchapter.
(E) As growth and its attendant population increase continues in the city, the need for additional central sewerage services increases.
(F) In order to accommodate the need for additional central sewerage service within the city, the city must acquire additional sewerage treatment and effluent disposal capacity to meet these needs.
(G) Previously, the city has selected one of the four ownership options referred to in its wastewater master plan by entering into the Seminole County/City of Lake Mary, Florida Exclusive Wholesale Sewage Treatment and Disposal Agreement executed on July 28, l987.
(H) This agreement allows the city to purchase sewage treatment and effluent disposal capacity on a wholesale basis from Seminole County in order to ultimately provide wastewater service capacity to developers and any other future city customers.
(I) This agreement requires the city to pay certain impact fees to Seminole County in order to purchase sewage treatment and effluent disposal capacity, based upon the then prevailing wastewater connection fee rate charged by Seminole County for capital facilities necessary to provide sewage treatment and effluent disposal capacity.
(J) In addition to this capacity, the city must provide major sewage transmission facilities in order to collect and transmit raw sewage and transmit that sewage to the Seminole County wastewater system in order to utilize said purchased sewage treatment and effluent disposal capacity.
(K) The city authorized its wastewater engineers to prepare a report to establish a just, fair, and equitable impact fee, which report is hereby adopted and incorporated into this subchapter as if fully set forth herein.
(L) Pursuant to Article VIII, Section II(b), Florida Constitution; F.S. § 166.021; F.S. Chapter 180; and other provisions of state law, the City Commission is authorized to provide, regulate, purchase, construct, improve, extend, enlarge, and reconstruct a sewerage system, and if further authorized, to fix and collect rates, fees, and other charges for the service and facilities furnished by its sewerage system.
(M) It is the policy and object of the City Commission to ensure that rates, charges, and fees levied to pay for the cost of the sewerage system acquisitions, additions, and expansions are just and reasonable and cover the true costs of said acquisitions, additions, and expansions.
(N) It is just and reasonable that the cost of the new sewerage system facility should be borne by the new users only to the extent that new use requires new facilities so that new users shall pay their fair share based on the additional burden their use places on the city's sewerage system.
(O) The City Commission has scheduled and held a public hearing to allow public comment on the adoption of the sewer impact fees.
(Ord. 354, passed 12-17-87; Am. Ord. 638, passed 4-15-93; Am. Ord. 839, passed 6-5-97; Am. Ord. 1518, passed 11-6-14)