By Kyle Coppola
Leesburg to Raise Building Permit Fees in October
The City of Leesburg’s building department fees will increase October 1, raising them back to levels set in 2018, when the Commission reduced fees due to an abundance of cash reserves. Returning to the 2018 fee levels reflects adjustments necessary to cover the operating costs of the Building Department, as Florida Statues requires that building fees only be used for expense related to inspection services.
The City Commission adopted the increased permit fee schedule on July 28, to be effective with the start of the city’s next fiscal year, which begins October 1. Under the FY 26 fee adoption, a permit for new residential construction will have a $150 minimum, or 46 cents per square foot. The fee for new commercial construction will have a minimum of $250, or 70 cents per square foot. The revised schedule also lays out costs for various other building services such as screen enclosures, reroofs, fences and pools.
The fees were last changed in 2018 and 2019 when they were cut by a total of 75%. At that time, cash reserves artificially built due to slower growth and less need for services when the fee was set prior to the economic slowdown of the 2010-2014 time period. Thus, the Commission made a determination to artificially lower fees and constructed a deficit spending plan in order to return funds to users of building services. As the economy improved and growth has returned to the region, the Department now requires a fee increase. The amount of time it took to return the fees to the 2018 rates was longer than anticipated. With the return to the 2018 levels, Leesburg Building Department fees will remain regionally competitive.
Leesburg City Manager Al Minner says, “While the Commission hates increasing any type of fee, I think the temporary reduction was well received by the local construction industry and it was commonly understood that the discount rate would not last forever.”
The rates beginning in FY 26 will allow the fund to recover only basic expenses, as well as maintain a small cash reserve.
Details of the approved fee changes are available on the city’s website at www.LeesburgFlorida.gov.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
