AG 1999 06 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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and within their respective extraterritorial planning jurisdictions. Similarly, the municipalities of Durham and Mebane also claim areas of planning jurisdiction, though smaller, within the boundaries of Orange County. (Although Hillsborough has adopted its own zoning and land subdivision ordinances, the county enforces the State Building Code and issues certificates of occupancy for the town within the town's planning jurisdiction.) In order to ensure that the collection of impact fees was smoothly integrated into the development review process, the county chose to rely on the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro to collect the fees before granting their residential certificates of occupancy and to remit the funds collected to the county. Because the enabling legislation did not compel the cities to assume this task, collection arrangements of this sod have had to be established by means of intedocal agreements between the respective municipalities and the county. Chapel Hill and Carrboro each have entered into agreements with the county concerning the administration of the county's impact fee ordinance. Although no such agreements have been reached with Durham and Mebane, little, if any, development subject to the impact fee has occurred in the portions of their respective jurisdictions that lie within Orange County. The support of the municipalities within a county that adopts school impact fees thus can be critical. In St. Johns County v. Northeast Florida Builders Ass'n, Inc., the Florida Supreme Court held that no school impact fees could be collected under a county ordinance until substantially all of the county's population was subject to it.63 The ordinance applied inside municipal limits only if a municipality entered into an intedocal agreement with the county. According to the court, the rational nexus principles would be violated if the fees 63. 583 So. 2d 635 (Fla. 1991}, 6O 55