Palm Bay council preserves option to study non‑ad valorem fire assessment for south area

Palm Bay City Council voted to approve Resolution 2026‑03, a preliminary step to preserve the city’s option to consider a non‑ad valorem assessment to pay for enhanced fire‑service capacity in a defined area of the city.

Mr. Morton, a city staff presenter, told the council the resolution is a statutory, timing‑preserving action that does not itself impose any assessment but allows the city to notify the tax collector, property appraiser and state officials and proceed quickly with required steps. He said the assessment design being considered would be graduated by parcel use, with low tiers for vacant lots and existing homes and higher tiers for new residential and commercial development.

Deputy City Manager Jason Dorenzo said staff met with major landowners around the St. John’s Heritage Parkway interchange, that nearly all parcels in the mapped south area are currently unimproved, and that state law requires the process be completed by Sept. 1 to collect fees this year. Dorenzo said a consultant study will identify fee tiers based on anticipated facility, apparatus and staffing needs and that the study is roughly $56,000.

“Impact fees alone will not fund a permanent station,” Mr. Morton said, citing staff estimates that impact fees over many years would amount to roughly $8.5 million while a permanent station building could cost on the order of $22–$25 million. He and Dorenzo said the assessment structure would allow bonding against projected assessment revenues and give the city a predictable funding stream to align capacity with growth.

Resident Bill Batton, who provided public comment, urged caution and posed a series of questions about precedent, who would pay during build‑out, parcel selection, and whether other services could later be subject to similar charges. Mr. Morton and Mr. Dorenzo answered that the vote is limited to a short, identified geographic area, that the general fund is currently covering temporary service, and that properties can be removed from the published map (but not added after publication).

Deputy Mayor Jaffy moved to approve Resolution 2026‑03; the motion was seconded and the council voted, recorded in the minutes as “Passes 4‑0.” The resolution preserves the timeline and legal notice requirements needed to pursue, if the council later chooses, a study and a mailed ballot process culminating in a final hearing before any assessment would be levied.

Next steps staff outlined include completing the consultant study, holding a public hearing to present proposed assessment amounts (anticipated in early July per staff), mailing parcel‑level ballots to affected landowners and returning to the council for a final vote.

The council’s approval at the special meeting does not itself create an assessment or set amounts; those would be determined in later, separate hearings.