Cape Coral council adopts 12.5% annual mobility-fee increase, rejects higher-fee option

The Cape Coral City Council on Sept. 25 voted to adopt ordinance 42-25 using a mobility-fee schedule that applies a 12.5% flat annual increase for four years, rejecting a proposal to invoke state-authorized "extraordinary circumstances" and set higher mobility fees sooner.

Council members debated infrastructure funding, the burden on existing residents, and whether the city should use a state statute that allows higher fees when an "extraordinary circumstances" finding is made. After an initial motion to adopt the higher fee schedule tied to extraordinary circumstances failed 5-3, the council approved the 12.5% mobility-fee version by an 8-0 vote.

The measure modifies the city's mobility/impact fee approach so that increases remain inside the 50% cap contemplated by state law over the four-year phase-in. Proponents framed the vote as a compromise that balances the need to fund traffic and…