Nassau County staff propose steep increases to impact fees and new mobility-fee schedule; hearing set for mid-December

NASSAU COUNTY — County staff and outside consultants presented updated studies that would substantially raise development impact fees and introduce new mobility fees to pay for capacity-adding transportation projects, citing rapid growth and rising construction costs.

At a board workshop, a county presenter told commissioners the draft comprehensive impact-fee schedule shows about a 97% increase for a sample single-family home in the 2,000–2,499 square-foot band, producing an illustrative fee of about $7,322. The presenter said the change is driven by higher market and replacement costs since the last study and by the inclusion of land values that had been set to zero in the prior analysis. "We're at 97% in the current draft study on the comprehensive impact fees," the presenter said.

The mobility-fee update proposed a separate per-household charge derived from a cost-per-vehicle-mile-traveled calculation. Staff described a 46-project list to mitigate growth that initially totaled roughly $500 million; after discounting for existing credits and historically funded capacity work the study used a reduced fee basis of about $251 million. Using the model's trip-generation and trip-length assumptions, the consultant presented proposed mobility fees for a single-family house of $11,332 in the East zone and $11,996 in the West zone. He said the study uses locally modeled vehicle miles traveled and standard trip-rate sources.

Why it matters: the proposed fees would shift more of the near-term infrastructure cost burden onto new development, affecting builders and potentially homebuyers. State law also constrains how often fees can be adjusted (staff reminded the board that fees may be increased no more than once every four years) and requires a special statutory procedure when a proposed increase exceeds 50%.

Builders raise accounting and credit concerns

Greg Matovina, representing the Northeast Florida Builders Association, praised staff work but raised substantive objections to the mobility-fee basket and applied credits. Matovina said his review found "$74,000,000 worth of projects identified that are included in the numbers to arrive at the $10,000 figure. And those projects are already funded. Some of them are partially completed." He urged the board to exclude projects already funded from the fee calculation and to restore prior practice of including historical grants as credits.

County staff responded that the mobility plan lists only capacity-adding projects (the state requirement for fee funding) and that the study already contains substantial discounts and credits. On the impact-fee side staff said it had applied a $7 million credit for administrative facilities and would review the written comments the county received from the builders association to determine if additional credits should apply. Staff also emphasized that Nassau County operates as a pay-as-you-go jurisdiction — the county collects fees and then funds projects, rather than using bonding in the fee calculation.

Legal threshold and schedule

Workshop discussion included which majority is needed to adopt an extraordinary increase. Outside counsel Heather Encinosa told the board that, under the statute, a two-thirds vote is required for the extraordinary-circumstances approval step and explained that, in practice, the county would need four of the five commissioners to vote in favor at the hearing.

Staff recommended keeping a second workshop on Dec. 8 and moving the public-hearing/adoption date to Dec. 17 to allow more stakeholder discussion. Commissioners debated the schedule because one commissioner said he may be absent on Dec. 17 for a medical procedure; counsel reiterated that the statute's threshold requires four votes in favor (if all five are present) and noted that special meeting options remain available. No motions or ordinance adoptions took place at the workshop.

What comes next

Staff said it will review written comments from stakeholders, circulate updates before the Dec. 8 workshop, and proceed with the public hearing process and required statutory notifications if the board directs. Commissioners did not take formal action at the workshop. The board will consider the ordinance adoption at the advertised hearing (staff proposed Dec. 17) where any required vote on the extraordinary increase would occur.

Sources and attributions

Quotes and figures above are drawn from presentations and public comment recorded during the Nassau County Board of Commissioners workshop on mobility and comprehensive impact fees; staff and consultants provided the draft fee tables and data to the board and stakeholders during the presentation.