Council hears outline for mobility-fee program to fund multimodal projects

City staff walked the council through what a local mobility-fee program would look like under Florida law and why the fee differs from traditional road impact fees.

"Mobility fee is the local government fee schedule, established by an ordinance and based on projects included in the adopted mobility plan," the presenter said, noting the fee is generally based on person-trips and can pay for sidewalks, bike lanes, transit stops, green infrastructure and other multimodal improvements. Staff stressed the legal and technical demands of the process: a 6–12 month plan-development phase, cost estimating, fee methodology and a robust stakeholder and public-engagement program. They recommended engaging a consultant with direct experience in mobility-fee adoption and exploring legal validation (bond validation) to reduce collection risk for long-term projects.

Councilmembers discussed benefit districts versus citywide use of collections, the need to test defensibility to avoid successful legal challenges, and the timing relative to the county's ordinances. Staff said the mobility-fee approach would create a 20-year project list that helps shape the capital-improvement program and provide flexibility to fund multimodal infrastructure that traditional road impact fees typically do not cover.