Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Business Journal article on Mobility Fees:

Mobility fee ordinance passes in Hillsborough, despite concern for small businesses

Apr 26, 2016, 9:39pm EDT

The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed a mobility fees ordinance to help fund the area’s transportation needs; but not without a few changes.

The mobility fees for new construction won passage Tuesday night at East Bay High School in Gibsonton, setting the stage for a vote on the controversial Go Hillsborough half-cent sales tax initiative tomorrow night.

A mobility fee is a one-time capital charge imposed on developers to pay for their share of the impact stemming from their residential and commercial projects. The fees are paid only once based on land use and size. They would replace the county’s current impact fee schedule which was first put into place in 1985 and updated in 1989.

At the public hearing Tuesday night, the board voted to conduct an annual review of the level of fees for the first five years, and added language to allow redaction of trade secrets from contracts being submitted to the county. In addition, the board set a single schedule on the phasing in of the mobility fees over a five-year period. The fees start at 40 percent and increase gradually over the five-year period.

At the hearing, Jennifer Doerfel of the Tampa Bay Builders Association, said her industry “more often than not, has been the sole source of revenue for a capital road improvement through the development agreement process.” She called the policy that has been in place for the past 30 years “a failed one” and said her group “will support a fair fee for a fair level of service.” She expressed concern that the mobility fee would pass but that “other funding sources will not materialize,” referring to the Go Hillsborough sales tax initiative.

At the hearing, Commissioner Sandra Murman insisted that the fee levels be reviewed every year for the first five years because she felt they were “exorbitant.” She expressed concern about the effect of the fees on small businesses. “We do not want to hamper small business development in Hillsborough County,” she said.

The percentage of the mobility fee assessed based on the date of initial assessment will be:

40 percent (January 1, 2017)

50 percent (January 1, 2018)

70 percent (January 1, 2019)

80 percent (January 1, 2020)

90 percent (January 1, 2021)

The schedule above as structured can go ahead no matter the outcome of the controversial Go Hillsborough half-cent sales tax initiative that will undergo a public hearing Wednesday.

The county administrator’s office originally proposed two schedules. But Commissioner Stacy White made a motion to start the schedule at 40 percent instead of 30 percent. White expressed concern that if the sales tax doesn’t pass, the money collected from the mobility fees might be lower than the current impact fee program.

Under the ordinance, the mobility fees will be collected from five districts in the county. The majority of the fee money will be spent in the district from which it is collected. The ordinance also includes a hearing officer and appeals process for those seeking to request an adjustment of the fee level.

Certain projects would be grandfathered under the ordinance so that the prior impact fees would apply instead of the new mobility fees. Among those projects would be those approved or under review by April 26, 2016. In addition, development agreements reached or under review prior to that date would also be grandfathered.

The county’s total unfunded transit needs would be approximately $905 million in the first 10 years and grow to $977 million in the next 10, according to County Administrator Mike Merrill. The Go Hillsborough sales tax is estimated to bring in $117 million annually. Under the Go Hillsborough plan, the bulk of money generated in the first 10 years would go to Hillsborough County, which would get $649 million or 55 percent. Meanwhile, HART would get $294 million or 25 percent of the funds for the bus system that it operates. The city of Tampa would receive 17 percent or $198 million. Plant City would get 2 percent or $20 million while Temple Terrace would get 1 percent or $14 million.

The money currently generated from impact fees are considered woefully short when it comes to supplying funds for the county’s growing transportation needs. Back in 1989 when the impact ordinance was last updated, the cost of construction to add a two-lane mile of road was $1.2 million. Since then, the cost has soared by 600 percent to nearly $4.7 million to build a comparable area of roadway.