At the September Workshop Meeting of the Midway Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Buck Thackeray announced that the Home Builders Association of West Florida (HBA) is dropping its lawsuit against Midway Fire District. Fire Chief Demeter confirmed that the motion to drop the suit had been filed on Monday, according to HBA Executive Director David Peaden.

The lawsuit, filed a year ago August, sought a permanent injunction against Midway in regard to imposing impact fees. It claimed that the fees were not imposed in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 191.009 of the Florida Statutes, and therefore were illegal.

The HBA maintained that “a proper study” done by an “independent source” qualified to do the study on

potential growth was not done prior to Midway initiating impact fees in June of ‘04. Midway defended its position by stating that a study was done, using Santa Rosa County growth projections and statistics.

To prepare for the lawsuit, the Board hired a Tallahassee firm to represent the District. The firm arranged for Government Services Group, a consultant firm that does growth studies to review the Midway Growth Study and do any work that needed to be done to refine the study.

For a year, negotiations have been underway to settle the matter out of court, but no successful compromise was reached.

Feeling that it would be to Midway’s advantage to authorize a completely new study, last month the Commissioners voted to hire the Government Services Group to do it. The projected cost will be $15,000.

“This will give us a high integrity study that can’t be argued at all,” said Commissioner Jaques Gorris. “It will be much more specific, looking at every tiny aspect of growth and how it impacts the District.”

It is the unanimous opinion of the Commissioners that the study will show that the impact fees should be higher on new construction and therefore the cost of the study is justified.

Thus far, the Midway’s legal fees to defend the HBA lawsuit are over $12,000.

“The money we were forced to spend by the HBA could have been spent in a better way, preparing for the next hurricane,” Gorris said.

Executive Director David Peaden said of the HBA’s action, “We filed to dismiss the lawsuit because Midway’s Board voted to do a study that will use factual numbers to justify the impact fees.”