Proposed fee would charge properties $500 for each police, fire or EMS call after 182 in a fiscal year
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Properties that place an unusually high demand on Port Royal’s police, fire and emergency services could soon be required to help pay for the cost of those responses under a new fee being considered by the Town.
Port Royal Town Council unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance on Wednesday, Sept. 9, establishing what the Town is calling a “Heavy User Fee.” The ordinance would also amend the Town’s fiscal year 2027 budget to account for revenue generated by the new fee.
Under the proposed ordinance, a property would be classified as a heavy user if it generates more than 182 calls for public safety services during a fiscal year. Once that threshold is reached, the property owner would be charged $500 for each additional call for service.
The ordinance defines public safety services as those provided by the Town’s law enforcement and combined fire department and includes emergency medical services provided by the Town as a result of a dispatch.
The fee is intended to shift some of the cost of providing repeated emergency services onto properties that use those services at a substantially higher rate than the typical Port Royal property.
Town Manager Van Willis told Council the ordinance is “an effort to address associated costs with properties that might be demanding more services than others” and provides the Town with a mechanism to recover some of those costs.
The idea has been under consideration for several months. During an Aug. 5 Council workshop, Town officials said legal counsel was examining the cost of both police and fire services and looking at a broader public service fee targeting properties with disproportionately high numbers of calls compared with traditional users.
Council had previously authorized the Town Manager to hire a consultant, at a cost not to exceed $30,000, to prepare a report on a potential heavy user fee.
The proposed ordinance says the Town determined that 182 calls during a fiscal year represents an “extraordinary and sustained demand” on public safety services. The $500 cost per call could be adjusted annually as part of the Town’s budgeting process.
The fee would apply only to calls above the threshold. For example, a property recording 190 qualifying calls during a fiscal year would be charged for eight calls, resulting in a $4,000 heavy user fee.
The ordinance broadly defines a property for purposes of determining heavy use, allowing the Town to consider multiple parcels, buildings or properties under common ownership or control as a single property in certain circumstances.
However, government entities would not be subject to the heavy user designation or fee.
The ordinance also provides a property tax credit for qualifying heavy users. The credit would be applied against the fee in an amount up to the Town property taxes paid by the property during the qualifying fiscal year. The ordinance says the credit is intended to prevent the combined burden of property taxes and the heavy user fee from becoming disproportionately high.
Revenue collected through the program would be restricted to public safety purposes rather than being treated as unrestricted Town revenue. The ordinance says the money could be used for police and fire services, equipment, capital improvements and other public safety costs.
Once a property crosses the threshold, the Town would notify the owner in writing and place the property on a heavy user register. A property would remain on that register until it completes an entire fiscal year without exceeding the threshold.
The ordinance also specifically prohibits landlords designated as heavy users from retaliating against tenants for calling emergency services or discouraging tenants from requesting police, fire or emergency assistance.
Council approved the ordinance on first reading without opposition. The measure requires a second reading and a public hearing before it can take effect.
If ultimately approved, the ordinance calls for the initial heavy user designations to be based on service-call data for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, with the initial notices sent no later than Oct. 1, 2026. Subsequent designations would be based on calls during each fiscal year.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.