Residential Fire Fee Set to Rise in High Springs

HIGH SPRINGS ‒ The High Springs City Commission voted unanimously on June 12, 2025, to approve an increase in the City’s Fire Assessment Fee, raising the residential rate to $250 for Fiscal Year 2026.

During the commission meeting, Fire Chief Joe Peters and Public Information Officer Kevin Mangan presented the results of a comprehensive study analyzing the number of fire service calls across residential, commercial, industrial/warehouse, and institutional categories for the 2023-24 period. The study, which cost approximately $16,500, was the City’s first since 2008 and showed significant growth in all categories.

Fire Assessment Fees are billed annually alongside property taxes and fund fire protection services. The current residential assessment has remained at $223 since 2021. That rate had also been in place from 2018 to 2020 before a temporary increase tied to the City’s transition to providing advanced life support (ALS) services.

“The money collected from the Fire Assessment must be used for the Fire Department only,” Peters emphasized.

Under Florida law, the City must structure the fees proportionally to the usage levels within each property classification. According to the study, the distribution of fire service usage is as follows: residential properties account for 68.75 percent of service calls, commercial properties 18.40 percent, industrial/warehouse properties 4.51 percent, and institutional properties 8.33 percent.

City staff presented four potential scenarios for updating the fire assessment structure. The first two scenarios maintained the current residential rate of $223, with varying adjustments to non-residential rates. The third scenario proposed increasing the residential fee to $239, while the fourth scenario recommended raising it to $250 and adjusting the other categories proportionally.

The commission adopted the fourth scenario, which is projected to generate approximately $969,220 in revenue.

Under the approved rates:

• Residential properties will be assessed at $250 annually.
• Commercial properties will be charged $0.24 per square foot.
• Industrial/warehouse properties will be charged $0.07 per square foot.
• Institutional properties will be charged $0.16 per square foot.

According to the City, the updated fire assessment is necessary to maintain legal compliance and ensure adequate funding for fire protection services amid increasing demand.

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