TO: Honorable Mayor & Members of the North Port Commission
FROM: Peter D. Lear, CPA, CGMA, City Manager
TITLE: Mobility Fee Presentation - City of North Port
Recommended Action
Discussion and direction regarding a City of North Port Mobility Plan and Fee Program.
Background Information
The State of Florida through the Growth Management Act of 1985, required all local governments adopt Comprehensive Plans to guide future development. The Act mandated adequate public facilities must be provided “concurrent” with the impacts of new development. The introduction of concurrency focused on accommodating the impact of new development primarily by adding roadway capacity via new and wider roadways and had the unintended consequence of driving development away from urban areas where capacity was not available or cost prohibitive.
During Florida’s period of rapid growth local governments’ ability to provide the necessary infrastructure was severely strained, many communities across the State started to deny developments or require substantial transportation improvements to meet the concurrency requirements. This prompted the Florida Legislature to enact laws requiring local governments charge new development only a “proportionate fair share” of its roadway capacity improvements and their impact on “backlogged” and “constrained” roadways, which in North Port’s case includes the following:
Backlogged Roadways Segments Location
Price Boulevard Sumter Boulevard to Toledo Blade Boulevard
Constrained Roadways
Salford Boulevard Price Boulevard to U.S. 41
Sumter Boulevard Heron Creek Boulevard to Price Boulevard
Chamberlain Boulevard Allegheny Lane to Hillsborough Boulevard
Hillsborough Boulevard Chamberlain Blvd. to Cranberry Blvd.
In 2011, the Legislature repealed the mandated concurrency and enacted further restrictions on local governments to implement concurrency and to calculate “proportionate share.” Finally, in 2013 the Legislature established Mobility Plans and Fees as a principle means for local governments to allow development, consistent with an adopted Comprehensive Plan, to equitably mitigate its transportation impact and fund multi-modal improvements. The intent of the Mobility Fee is to enact a streamlined, simplified mitigation mechanism process and allow greater flexibility in funding multi-modal transportation improvements. The adoption of a Mobility Fee would provide the City with an additional funding source for providing mobility through a multimodal transportation system such as bike lanes, sidewalks, neighborhood bridge connectors over stormwater canals, and transit improvements. Plus, the implementation would allow an applicant to simply look up the uses that are proposed and calculate the required mitigation.
Prior to the Sarasota County’s adoption of its Mobility Plan and Fee Program, North Port staff had worked closely with Sarasota County staff in preparation of the Plan. Staff closely collaborated on the development of a viable City option to opt into the County Ordinance by studying North Port’s land uses, mixed use areas inside the Urban Service Boundary, and infill opportunities that may result in fee reduction factors. Also, both staffs worked towards a North Port district, fund distribution, adjacent area project funding, and the processing of appeals or disputes which would be part of policy within an interlocal agreement for collection and disbursement of mobility fees.
Since adoption of the Sarasota County Mobility Plan and Fee Program (September 08, 2015), the City of Venice has opted into the County Mobility Plan and Fee Program, while the City of Sarasota has opted out to adopt its own mobility plan and fee program.
The City of North Port currently has a Transportation Impact Fee which is used for the increase in capacity of roads in the City of North Port. Staff are currently requesting direction from the City Commission on the following options:
• Stay with the current Transportation Impact Fee model
• Adopt a Mobility Plan and Fee Program and become a District in the Sarasota County Plan
• Adopt a Mobility Plan and Fee Program independent from Sarasota County
Strategic Plan
Goal: Maintained/Upgraded/Expanded City Infrastructure.
Financial Impact
The fiscal impact is dependent on the direction of City Commission. Transitioning from a road impact fee to a mobility fee will have technical considerations; however, the flexible use of the revenues generated by the mobility fee can be applied on a City-wide transportation improvement program is key to implementation of the City’s “Complete Streets” program. It should be understood, as constrained by State statute, neither mobility fees nor the existing road impact fee program will generate significant revenues to totally solve transportation (i.e. road building) funding. Instead, a mobility fee will provide the City flexibility to spend capital infrastructure revenues on more than just roads (e.g. intersection improvements, transit, sidewalks, and bike lanes, etc.) through the implementation of the City’s “Complete Streets” program.
Procurement
Attachments:
1. Mobility Fee Presentation - North Port
Prepared by: Thomas A. Cookingham, AICP
Department Director: Scott Williams