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The North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District has been exploring the fee as an option to supplement its funding, which now comes primarily from property taxes.
The fee would require approval from voters living in the North Collier Fire district — but the board of fire commissioners that oversees the district has yet to decide whether to put the question on the ballot.
The idea behind the fee is to create a more sustainable funding method, which fire district officials say is needed to keep up with growth, cover replacement and maintenance costs and provide adequate reserves.
The proposed fee would increase the district's funding by about $3.5 million annually.
The district is hosting town halls to share information about the fee and to get feedback before its board votes June 21 on whether to bring it to voters.
More:Here's where you can attend a fire fee town hall meeting
A town hall discussion held Thursday targeted business owners wanting to learn how the fee might affect their operations. It drew fewer than 10 people, including three representatives from the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, a pastor, a retiree and a hotel executive.
If the fire district's board agrees to bring the question to voters, it would be on the ballot for the primary election Aug. 28.
If the fee is implemented, some property owners in the district would pay more and some would pay less than what they do now for their fire and emergency services. It would affect businesses more than homeowners.
"All commercial, for the most part, is going to increase, along with the institutional categories," said Sal D'Angelo, the fire district's executive director.
Here's how the fee would work: Owners of residential property would pay a flat rate of $254 per dwelling and owners of vacant land would pay $90 per parcel — but other property owners would be charged a fee based on square footage and uses.
Commercial property would pay 25 cents per square foot, while owners of industrial and warehouse properties would pay 4 cents per square foot. That means the larger the property, the higher the fee, an idea that is rubbing some business owners and executives the wrong way.
Based on square footage
Ed Staros, managing director for The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples, is a vocal opponent of the fee. He attended the town hall discussion Thursday, asking a series of questions and letting his feelings be known about the proposal, which he said "doesn't make sense."
"It's wrong," he said. "The value of property is what it should be based on."
He also raised concerns about the ballot language, saying the fire board needed to make sure the question asked was simple and understandable to voters.
Currently, 95 percent of the district's revenue comes from property taxes — and the amount paid by property owners is based on the taxable value of their property and where they live in the district.
Nearly 87.5 percent of the property tax revenue the fire district gets comes from residential property owners, so they have the bigger burden, D'Angelo said.
With the fire fee, about 67.5 percent of the revenue would come from residential, and the rest from commercial and industrial property owners.
"That's where your institutional and your commercial category will go up," D'Angelo said.
If the fire fee is implemented, fire commissioners have proposed lowering the current tax rates that are charged to .5 mill in both its North Naples and Big Corkscrew Island service areas. A half mill is equal to 50 cents per $1,000 in taxable value.
In the North Naples service area, the tax is now at 1 mill, while in Big Corkscrew it's at 3.5, a rate set before the two districts merged in 2015.
Bentley Village hike would be $600K
Janet Vasey, a retiree who lives in Bentley Village, blasted the fire fee proposal at Thursday's town hall meeting.
She has studied county and fire district budget for 20 years. She said she doesn't see a need for the fee — and also thinks it would be an unfair assessment.
Currently, Bentley Village pays about $86,000 a year to the fire district, but with the proposed tax plan, that could skyrocket to $675,000 — and that's just one example of how it would affect some property owners much more than others, Vasey said.
"That's ridiculous," she said.
She questions whether the district really needs the money.
"There is no crisis," she said. "There are no areas that aren't being covered, and people aren't dying."
Chamber not ready to weigh in
Michael Dalby, president and CEO of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, attended the town hall discussion so he could learn more about the fee to share with businesses.
But the chamber isn't ready to take a stand on the proposal one way or the other, with the district board yet to make a decision on whether it will even bring the question about the fire fee assessment to voters and, if so, exactly what it will propose.
In the meantime, Dalby said he is encouraging local business owners to go to the fire district's website at northcollierfire.com to learn as much as they can about the proposed fee.
"This fee is new," he said. "It's not necessarily new to Florida, but it's new to Collier County. It's something our businesses need to look closely at."
Here's where and when to go to upcoming town hall discussions about the fire fee:
June 19: Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church, 1225 Piper Blvd.; 7 p.m.
July 11: North Collier Fire Rescue Station 10, 13240 Immokalee Road; 7 p.m.
July 26:  Collier County library headquarters, 2385 Orange Blossom Dr.; 6:30 p.m.
Aug. 7: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 625 111th Ave. N.; 7 p.m.
Aug. 9: St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church, 7100 Airport-Pulling Road N.; 7 p.m.
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