Marion County’s impact fees on a new home are not a single number that holds still. The transportation fee is phasing up from 70 percent of its calculated rate to 100 percent in four annual steps, and the step you pay is fixed by the date your builder’s building permit application is received, not by the date you sign, close or move in. On a 1,900 square foot home in unincorporated Marion County, a permit application filed today carries 9,552 dollars in county impact fees. The same application filed on or after October 1, 2028 carries 10,616 dollars.
The four fees a new Marion County home pays
A new single-family home in unincorporated Marion County is charged four separate county impact fees, each adopted under its own ordinance. Three of them are flat. One is climbing on a published schedule.
- Transportation, under Ordinance No. 2025-18, phasing in over four years.
- Fire protection, under Ordinance No. 2025-17, effective October 1, 2025.
- EMS, under the same Ordinance No. 2025-17.
- Educational system, under Ordinance No. 2024-06, effective July 1, 2024.
The first three are keyed to the size of the house. Marion County uses three size bands for both transportation and fire rescue: 1,500 square feet or less, 1,501 to 2,499 square feet, and 2,500 square feet and greater. The school fee is a single rate of 4,307 dollars for a single-family detached home or a mobile home on a lot, regardless of size.
The transportation fee is on a four-step climb to 2028
Marion County’s own impact fee page states that transportation impact fees will increase from 70 percent of the actual impact to 100 percent over a period of four years beginning October 1, 2025. The county’s legal notice publishes the full table, with the calculated rate alongside the amount actually charged at each step.
| Single-family detached | Calculated rate | Oct. 1, 2025 (70%) | Oct. 1, 2026 (80%) | Oct. 1, 2027 (90%) | Oct. 1, 2028 (100%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,500 sq ft or less | $4,388 | $3,072 | $3,510 | $3,949 | $4,388 |
| 1,501 to 2,499 sq ft | $5,318 | $3,723 | $4,254 | $4,786 | $5,318 |
| 2,500 sq ft and greater | $5,855 | $4,099 | $4,684 | $5,270 | $5,855 |
Today sits in the third column. The step that began October 1, 2026 runs until September 30, 2027, so a building permit application received in Marion County right now is charged the 80 percent transportation rate. Because the schedule is published through October 1, 2028, the ceiling is knowable for a build that will not finish for two years. On the middle size band, the step from 70 to 80 percent added 531 dollars, and the two steps still ahead add another 1,064 dollars.
What the whole bill looks like at each step
Adding the flat fees to the phasing one gives the figure that matters to a buyer. For unincorporated Marion County, fire protection is 663, 753 and 829 dollars across the three size bands, EMS is 208, 238 and 261 dollars, and the school fee is 4,307 dollars.
| Permit application received | 1,500 sq ft or less | 1,501 to 2,499 sq ft | 2,500 sq ft and greater |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 1, 2025 to Sep. 30, 2026 | $8,250 | $9,021 | $9,496 |
| Oct. 1, 2026 to Sep. 30, 2027 (now) | $8,688 | $9,552 | $10,081 |
| Oct. 1, 2027 to Sep. 30, 2028 | $9,127 | $10,084 | $10,667 |
| Oct. 1, 2028 onward | $9,566 | $10,616 | $11,252 |
These are county impact fees only. They are not the building permit fee, not utility connection or capacity charges, and not anything a community development district or homeowners association adds. Some builders fold impact fees into the base price and absorb a step increase; others quote the house and pass fees through at cost. The contract decides that, which is the first thing to read.
The date that locks your rate is the permit application date
This is the mechanism most buyers get wrong, and it is not a Marion County invention. Florida’s impact fee statute, section 163.31801(4)(d), provides that unless the result is to reduce the total mitigation costs or impact fees imposed on an applicant, new or increased impact fees may not apply to current or pending permit applications submitted before the effective date of a new or increased impact fee. The same paragraph requires at least 90 days of notice before an increased fee takes effect.
Marion County implements that directly. Both the transportation and fire rescue notices state that the new rates take effect for all building permit applications received on October 1, 2025 and thereafter. The school fee notice is the most explicit: if a building permit has been given a permit number prior to the effective date of the new rates, the customer owes only the fee in effect on the date the application was submitted, as long as the permit remains valid through construction.
Read that last clause twice. The lock is conditional on the permit staying alive. A permit that lapses and has to be reissued is a new application, and it lands on whatever step is current the day it is filed. On a build that stalls through an October 1, that is a real exposure.
You pay at the certificate of occupancy, not at the permit
Rate and timing are two different questions. The transportation, fire rescue and school notices all state that payment of the applicable fees is a condition of issuance of the certificate of occupancy. The fee is set at application and collected at the end.
Florida law sets the floor on that timing. Section 163.31801(4)(e) requires a local government to ensure that collection of the impact fee may not be required to occur earlier than the date of issuance of the building permit. Marion County collects later than that floor.
For a buyer, the practical consequence is that the impact fee does not appear as a line on your closing statement in a to-be-built transaction where the builder is the permit holder. It was paid before the certificate of occupancy was issued, and it sits inside the price. It is also a separate question from how a new home’s first property tax bill is assessed, and the two are routinely confused.
Inside Ocala, the answers change
The fee package is not uniform across Marion County’s five municipalities. The transportation notice applies that fee in the unincorporated area and all municipal areas. The fire rescue notice is narrower: fire protection and EMS impact fees apply in the unincorporated area and in Belleview, Dunnellon, Reddick and McIntosh, while within the City of Ocala only the EMS fee is charged.
Ocala charges its own fire impact fee instead, under City Ordinance 2019-47. The City also states on its impact fee page that fees are assessed during the review process and prior to the issuance of the permit, which is earlier than the county’s certificate of occupancy trigger. Same county, different payment moment.
The school fee carries its own municipal condition. Ordinance No. 2024-06 established educational system impact fees in all unincorporated and incorporated areas of Marion County, but provides that collection within municipalities will not occur until the county and the city have entered into an interlocal agreement. Buying inside a city limit, that agreement is what determines whether the 4,307 dollars is collected there, and the city is the office to ask.
What to settle before you sign
- Ask the builder in writing whether impact fees are in the base price or passed through at cost, and who absorbs a step increase if the permit is filed after September 30.
- Get the date the building permit application was or will be received, and the permit number once issued. That date, not your contract date, sets the rate.
- Confirm the square footage the county will use. The bands sit at 1,500 and 2,500 square feet, and a plan that crosses either line moves three of the four fees at once.
- Confirm the jurisdiction. Unincorporated Marion County, Ocala, Belleview, Dunnellon, Reddick and McIntosh do not carry the same package.
- Ask what happens if the permit expires before the certificate of occupancy. The rate lock survives only as long as the permit remains valid through construction.
- Verify every figure with the Marion County Impact Fee Coordinator at 352-438-2610. Schedules change by ordinance, and a step changes every October 1 through 2028.
Frequently asked questions
Do I pay Marion County’s impact fees at closing?
In a to-be-built purchase where the builder holds the permit, no. Marion County’s notices make payment a condition of issuance of the certificate of occupancy, so the fees are paid before the home can be occupied. The cost reaches you through the purchase price. If you hold the permit and are building on your own lot, you pay them yourself before the certificate of occupancy is issued.
If I sign a contract now, am I protected from the October 2027 increase?
Your contract does not set the impact fee rate. The date the building permit application is received does. Section 163.31801(4)(d) protects applications submitted before the effective date of an increase, and Marion County’s notices tie the rate to applications received on or after October 1. A contract signed in August with a permit application filed the following November is charged at the later step. What your contract can do is allocate that risk between you and the builder, which is why the pass-through language matters.
Can Marion County raise these fees again before 2028?
The four-step transportation schedule through October 1, 2028 is already adopted and published, so those increases are known. Beyond it, state law constrains new increases. Section 163.31801(6) provides that an impact fee increase may not exceed 50 percent of the current rate, that an impact fee may not be increased more than once every 4 years, and that it may not be increased retroactively for a previous or current fiscal or calendar year. A local government can exceed those limits only through the demonstrated-need process the statute lays out in subsection (6)(g).
Where to go from here
Impact fees are one of several Marion County costs decided by paperwork filed long before you see the house. If your lot will be on septic, which agency issues the permit and whether a conventional system is legal is the other question worth settling early. Nearby counties handle the timing differently, as in what Osceola County assesses on certificate of occupancy day.
If you are weighing a to-be-built contract in Marion County or anywhere in Central Florida, book a strategy session with our team at mvphomegroup.com/nelsoncruz. We read the builder’s cost sheet against the county’s current schedule and the permit timeline before you sign. This is general information about county ordinances and state law, not legal or tax advice, and the Marion County Impact Fee Coordinator is the authority on any specific parcel.
Nelson Cruz, P.A.
Founder & CEO
MVP Home Group, Real Broker LLC
Nelson brings nearly two decades in law enforcement to his work in real estate. View Nelson’s profile or contact our team at 407-901-9939 or [email protected].
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration of a newly framed single-family house under construction, with bare wall studs and roof trusses, a fresh concrete slab and driveway apron, a stack of lumber and roofing bundles on the dirt lot, and a clipboard of blank paperwork resting in the foreground. No readable text, signage or logos. Not a particular property.