Local Choices for Development Impact Fees
This article investigates the patterns and determinants of local impact-fee adoptions. The theoretical framework combines political market approaches based in interest-group theories of property rights and diffusion theories of innovation. Event history analysis is employed to estimate impact-fee adoptions in 66 Florida counties from 1977 to 2001. The empirical results demonstrate clear spatial and temporal patterns, showing that counties experiencing rapid growth actively adopted impact fees. The findings also provide several lessons. First, the development community has a significant influence on the adoption or nonadoption of impact fees. Second, intergovernmental constraints (or incentives) affect local choice. Third, counties are more likely to adopt impact fees as more neighboring counties have adopted them. Fourth, administrative capacity is a critical resource that influences impact fee adoptions. Fifth, the results confirm that rapid growth promotes impact fee adoptions.