What it costs in government fees to build a home in Lee County, Florida
Every impact fee, water and sewer connection charge, and building permit for a new
single-family detached home in unincorporated Lee County — itemized, sourced, and dated.
Total government fees$18,237Single-family detached, 2,000 sq ft heated/conditioned, 4BR, 3/4" water meter, county water and sewer, unincorporated area. Ranges from $17,796 (North Fort Myers fire district)
to $22,397 (new main tap plus directional bore).
Impact & mobility fees
Fee
Amount
Roads Impact Fee — SF Detached
Eff. Jun 4, 2018 · sourceBase $9,996 collected at 52.5%.
$5,248.00
School Impact Fee — SF Detached
Eff. Jun 4, 2018 · sourceBase $5,484 collected at 52.5%.
$2,879.00
Fire Impact Fee — Lehigh Acres district
Eff. May 4, 2026 · p.20 · sourceRises $75.75/yr through 5/4/2029 to $966. Other districts range $310.50–$861.75.
$738.75
Community Park Impact Fee
Eff. Jun 4, 2018 · sourceBase $884 collected at 52.5%.
$464.00
Regional Park Impact Fee
Eff. Jun 4, 2018 · sourceBase $651 collected at 52.5%.
$342.00
Impact fee administrative fee (3%)
Eff. Invalid Date · sourceLDC sec 2-271(a). Added to every impact fee assessment.
$291.95
EMS Impact Fee
Eff. May 4, 2026 · p.21 · sourceRises to $65 on 5/4/2027, then flat.
$60.00
Subtotal
$10,024
Water & sewer — Lee County Utilities
Fee
Amount
System Wastewater Connection (Capacity) Fee — 1.00 ERU
Eff. May 5, 2026 · p.3 · sourceRises $332.50/yr to $3,990 by 5/5/2028.
$3,325.00
System Water Connection (Capacity) Fee — 1.00 ERU
Eff. May 5, 2026 · p.3 · sourceRises $305/yr to $3,660 by 5/5/2028.
$3,050.00
Water Meter Installation (drop-in), 5/8"
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · source⚠ Applies where the developer already stubbed the service. A new tap into an existing main is $2,313, plus $2,282 if directional bore is required. This schedule expires 9/30/2026.
$435.00
Subtotal
$6,810
Building permits, surcharges & other
Fee
Amount
Structural Inspections
Eff. Apr 15, 2026 · source$0.15/sq ft with a $500 minimum — the minimum binds up to 3,333 sq ft gross.
Prorated residential solid waste assessment at CO
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · sourceJuly CO, East/Lehigh/Alva franchise area. Range across areas is $53.59–$63.52; a September CO pays the full year.
Operational Support Fee
Eff. Apr 15, 2026 · sourceCurrently 0%. Cannot change before 10/15/2026; capped at +2%/quarter and +5%/fiscal year.
$0.00
Subtotal
$1,404
Fire district
Independent fire districts do not levy their own impact fees — the county collects on their behalf into district-specific benefit accounts.
District
Fee
North Fort Myers
$311
South Trail
$601
Iona–McGregor
$704
Lehigh Acres
$739
Alva / Bayshore / Tice / San Carlos Park
$862
Fees Lee County does not charge
Verified absent, so you don't go looking for them.
No law enforcement or police impact fee. LDC Ch. 2 Art. VI contains exactly six divisions — Generally, Roads, Regional Parks, Community Parks, Fire/EMS, School.
No library, general government or stormwater impact fee.
No separate electrical, mechanical or plumbing sub-permits on a new home — trade inspections are line items inside the master residential record.
What we could not verify
These are reported as gaps rather than estimated. The total above is a floor.
Impact fees are collected at 52.5% of adopted base, but Ordinance 18-08 schedules a step to 55% on 3/10/2022 that was never repealed. All 162 Lee County ordinances from 2019–2026 were downloaded and searched; no amendment exists. Florida's HB 337 four-year rule most likely blocked the step, but no county document says so. At 55% the impact fees rise ~$385 before the 3% admin fee.
3/4" water meter tap-in and drop-in charges are not published — the current actual-cost sheet covers 5/8", 1", 1.5" and 2" only
Wastewater main tap charge is 'actual cost' with no published figure
Roads, Parks and Schools base fees are 2018-vintage and overdue for the county's own five-year update cycle, though none is adopted
Why this number is easy to get wrong
The External Fee Manual is partly stale despite a June 2026 modification date. Its Utilities sections still show water capacity $2,440 and sewer $2,660 — superseded on 2/4/2025. The same document's Building Permit section IS current. A document can be simultaneously current and stale by section.
The fire and EMS tables have five columns; the 5/4/2026 column governs, not the one labelled 'Current Fee.'
The 2/3/2026 impact-fee agenda packet uses CID fonts with no ToUnicode map — text extraction returns pure garbage. Only rendering pages to images recovers the tables.
Lee labels F.S. 468.631 the 'Administrative Fee' and F.S. 553.721 the 'Radon Fee.' The rates are applied correctly; only the nicknames are counterintuitive.
How to use this. Every figure is transcribed from an official
Lee County or Florida Statutes document, linked inline, with its effective date. No third-party
legal-code mirrors were used — in testing, one returned impact fees off by 2.4×. Built for screening
and pro-forma work; confirm with the county before you sign anything.