§ 24-214. Deferral of payment of capacity expansion charges for economic development purposes.

(a)

The board hereby establishes a deferral program that allows the payment of water and sewer capacity expansion charges over time for those non-residential projects which have been determined to qualify as an economic development project by the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council.

(b)

Eligibility. In order to qualify for the deferral program, the non-residential business must have applied for and received an economic development ad valorem tax exemption by the county either prior to or concurrently with the approval of the deferral. In addition, the non-residential business must be certified by the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County as a high impact economic development project within a target industry business as established under the provisions of Section 288.106, Florida Statutes. A high impact economic development project shall be a project which creates 100 new high impact jobs and/or will provide a capital investment of at least $10,000,000.00.

(c)

Terms of the deferral shall be as follows:

(1)

The payment of the water and sewer capacity expansion charges, which would normally be required to be paid in advance of the issuance of a building permit and the setting of the water meter, shall be deferred. Only the water and sewer capacity expansion charges shall be eligible for deferral and not the cost of expansion of any lines or infrastructure necessary to provide service to the project. The county is authorized, but not obligated, to enter into additional agreements to address the provision and funding of necessary capital infrastructure to serve a project based upon the specific circumstances of a particular project.

(2)

In lieu of payment prior to construction, the business shall be allowed to pay the water and sewer capacity expansion charges on their utility bill once service is instituted and shall be paid over a period of three years in equal monthly payments. The deferred payment plan shall apply to the total charges in such amounts as respectively set out in Appendix A—User Charge Tables for Okaloosa County Water and Sewer User Charge Ordinance except for an up-front charge of ten percent of the total amount deferred, including interest, recording and cancellation fees, and agreement preparation costs.

(3)

Prior to approval of the deferral program for the property, the owner must enter into an agreement with the county, which is approved by the board, requiring that they will pay the amounts of the water and sewer capacity expansion charges and that in the event, they fail to pay the full amount in any given month, water service will be cut off/locked in accordance with existing cut off practice, including due dates, past due dates and cut off dates. If the monthly charges are not paid for three months after the first due date, that the property owner consents that the remaining amount owed and any administrative costs involved may be assessed against the property and collected on the ad valorem tax bill as a non-ad valorem assessment against the property.

( Ord. No. 16-16 , § 1, 9-6-16)