Developers and citizens alike want to know how, and why, they should pay for Hillsborough County’s last 40 years of under-estimation, as workshops on a “mobility fee” for new and improved transportation continue.
County public utilities staff, the organization Go Hillsborough (devoted to transportation issues), and other specialized groups have been working diligently for months, collecting information from citizens and compiling a list of more than 400 new and renovation projects considered critical.
Meanwhile, developers have been building housing all over the county, especially in South County, where there is still undeveloped land, since 2011. That is the year when the Florida Legislature dropped regulations that used to force developers to pay what they called “concurrency,” which paid for the impact of more people in parks, schools, roads and more. (The Observer News has been covering the legislation and the “mobility fee” issue being considered since August 2015. Many of the URLs of background stories are listed in the Nov. 12, 2015 edition.)
With 330,000 more people projected to move into Hillsborough County by 2020 — and more than 600,000 by 2040 — county public works staff is attempting to get the county commission to vote on an ordinance replacing “impact fees” (a fee initiated in 1985 for new homes) with “mobility fees” that are much larger. These mobility fees would cover transportation of all kinds, including vehicles, bikes, sidewalks and other conveyances.
Separate meetings are held for developers and concerned citizens who often represent homeowners’ groups, because different kinds of questions arise from each.
Mike Williams, director of the county’s transportation and planning, and Lucia Garsys, chief administrator of development and infrastructure services have presided over the meetings.
Knowing that roads and bridges are already crowded and many are in need of repair, county workers asked the commission on Feb. 4 to enact the mobility fee on builders and developers of new projects. But commissioners and County Administrator Mike Merrill refused, saying the data staff produced from a series of meetings around the county was not clear enough, and the math did not add up correctly.
They ordered another series of focus groups, and the next were held Feb. 11.
At the developers’ focus group, which was attended by about 60 builders and developers, many questions were asked about the county’s use of old data with new resident counts and also using other counties as examples.
They worry because the new fee suggested is much higher on homes than the old fee, and lots of homes are already permitted and in progress.
As an example, the fee on a new two-bedroom home would go from approximately an $1,800 “impact” fee to about a $6,500 “mobility fee.”
Developers and builders want clear answers, but the county admits there aren’t any because of drastic population changes.
“At what point will we see these costs we didn’t budget for?” several asked.
“I know, sometimes it seems the methodology is draconian,” said Garsys. “But we’re working with what we have. In some instances, people have actually stood in the street all day asking people where they come from and what their destination is.”
The reason for this is because developers will be charged according to an estimate of the trip mileage each new person will bring to the area, resulting in “road miles.”
“It costs $5 million to build one road mile. That’s the same as 10 fire stations,” several specialists working on the project said.
Charts handed out explained that transportation makes up 85 percent of what is spent in a neighborhood when one new person moves in. The long lists of fees show that (in many cases) fees for building homes will go up more than businesses.
“Job creation is a big part of the package,” Mike Williams explained to County Commissioners Feb. 4 — and again to developers and builders at their focus group Feb. 11.
That’s why the mobility fee needs to be passed in two separate pieces, staff said.
One piece would be a transparent “flat-fee” for certain square-footage homes (of which there is a list on the county’s website), and another would be for development that will bring in the type of jobs the area needs.
“The job creation piece will not travel with the mobility ordinance,” Garsys said, which led to many questions. It was agreed that more focus groups need to be held to answer questions the county has no answers for as of yet.
“We would like to see this go back to the commission in a way they can approve, maybe as early as March,” Garsys said.
“Why should we pay for the county’s lack of preparedness?” asked more than four developers.
“It sounds like the county is going to ask for this without a referendum,” said Bill Roberts.
In 1985, when the impact fee was initiated, county workers explained, data from the 1960s to that time was considered. Then things boomed. And then went bust.
Developers of homes in progress fear they will be hit with new costs when they least expect it.
At what point developments already in progress will be charged is the main cause for concern.
“We studied 300 sites, 40 different land uses,” said Garsys, referring to the new data collected in recent months.
In the 1980s and 1990s, there were hundreds of studies, but that was before the “boom” in new residents. “We just don’t know the answers, things change so fast,” she said.
But she was certain no locals would have to pay for anything for which the state should pay.
“In no way will developers or the county be paying for any improvements to the interstates,” Garsys said in answer to one question about the collection of cars lined up at I-75 ramps. “That piece belongs to the state.”
Some developers questioned the fact that the state had caused the problem when it dropped regulations, and now there is a back-up in projects that they could have budgeted for, had they known.
Others wanted to know if small retail offices would be charged the same as the large ones, and if places (like fast-food restaurants) that brought a lot of traffic to roads and neighborhoods, would have fees like those that brought much less traffic but were the same square footage, like a furniture store.
“How will the demand be figured?” asked Steve Henry. “I want to see the data.”
“We are not yet certain how this will work,” said Garsys.
More focus groups will be held and updates posted at www.hillsboroughcounty.org, under “County Meetings and Events.”