When the Jacksonville Business Journal takes four minutes to explain what’s happening with impact fees in Nassau County, it validates months of concerns raised by NassauFLDOGE: this is not a routine policy adjustment — it’s a major shift with real consequences, and county leadership appears unmoved by the fallout.
The headline facts are stark. Nassau County commissioners approved a phased plan to nearly double impact fees on new homes, invoking “extraordinary circumstances” to justify increases well beyond the 50% threshold allowed under Florida law. For homes over 3,000 square feet, fees jump from $3,721 to $8,529. That’s not trimming around the edges; it’s a wholesale reset of the cost of building in the county.
We have consistently warned that stacking fees without accountability — impact fees on top of rising mobility fees, on top of school impact fees, on top of escalating property taxes — creates a hostile environment for working families, builders, and employers. The JBJ article makes clear this isn’t theoretical. Developers are already “bracing for trouble,” and industry groups openly dispute the county’s claim that Nassau faces anything “extraordinary” compared to other fast-growing Florida counties…