Hillsborough County commissioners recently approved a new mobility fee ordinance that will impact commercial and residential developers in Tampa and surrounding neighborhoods in Hillsborough County. The new ordinance will require developers to submit to a one-time capital charge on any new developments in the county based on size and land-use of the projects. Fees will be highest in low density areas, and effort meant to curb further sprawl. Commissioners agreed upon an incremental structuring of the fee based on a five-year review plan with fees starting at 40% and eventually leading to 90% by 2021. The fees will be collected from the county’s five districts and will replace the current impact fee scheduling instituted in 1985 and re-structured in 1989.
Developers are concerned that they will be shouldering the main brunt of costs for the county’s transit services and that the revenue will not be supplemented with any other source of income. With the rejection of the ‘Go Hillsborough’ plan earlier in the week, it seems that developers concerns may hold water. This could be cause for major concern within the county as developers may be less inclined to break-ground on projects in Hillsborough. Neighboring Counties, Pinellas, Pasco, Sarasota or Manatee also charge high fees, relative to the rest of the US, but Hillsborough County fees will be significantly higher. Though the new fee structuring comes with an appeals process that will allow developers to submit an fee-adjustment proposal and some current projects in the pipe-line will be grandfathered-in under the current 1989 structure, it does little to pacify developers in the area. With the rise of construction costs, developers fear that the new mobility fee will impose too much financially to begin new projects. Construction costs have risen nearly 600 percent since the last revised fee structure from 1989. With the new mobility fees set to affect both residential and commercial developments, small businesses face concerns over operating costs.
