Consultant: new multimodal fee study shows lower residential fees, urges interlocal coordination

Negan Kemp, the city's consultant on impact fees, presented the 2025 multimodal transportation impact-fee study at the March 25 meeting.

Kemp explained impact fees are one-time capital charges on new development to fund capacity-adding transportation projects and described a consumption-based method used in the study. She summarized a worked example that estimated the cost to add a lane-mile and the resulting per-home calculation: a preliminary gross cost produced a per-single-family-home figure of roughly $6,200, from which county and other credits are subtracted. Kemp said Volusia County is collecting a larger county-level fee that, under the interlocal agreement, reduces the city's allowable fee; in the example the city's differential was roughly $700.

Kemp outlined statutory requirements including the Impact Fee Act, recent legislative changes requiring interlocal agreements where both city and county collect transportation fees, and a 90-day notice requirement if fees increase. She told the commission most residential rates in the draft schedule declined and that some nonresidential land uses increased due to updated trip-generation assumptions.

Commissioners asked whether multimodal components (pedestrian, bike, transit) were included; Kemp said they were but roadway capacity comprises roughly 98% of projected costs. Commissioners also discussed options for increasing the city's share of funds, including negotiating with the county on priority projects and the technical limits of impact fees to fund ongoing maintenance or operating costs. Staff and the consultant were asked to continue outreach and return with ordinance language to begin the formal adoption process; Kemp recommended adopting without undue delay to meet statutory windows for increases or challenges.