Pasco County drops impact fee, adopts ‘mobility fee’

Pasco County became the first Florida county, under a new state law, to substitute “mobility fees” for the road impact fees that real estate developers pay, often to increase roadway capacity.

Other counties are considering the more flexible mobility fee, which can be spent on a variety of transit-related assets including trails, sidewalks and mass transit as well as roads.

Pasco County commissioners last month voted unanimously to replace the county’s transportation impact fee with a mobility fee to cover the transportation infrastructure costs.

Adoption of the mobility fee won’t require a new county tax.

The county will pledge future revenue from property tax to reduce mobility fees “for selected uses and selected areas,” the county said in a press release. “The intent is to direct development into uses that create jobs and new tax base for the County and into areas where infrastructure and services are more readily available,” mainly along such major highways as US 19 and Interstate 75.

Hillsborough and Osceola  counties are among those considering the switch from impact fees to mobility fees.

Mobility fees could reduce suburban sprawl by directing new real estate developments toward densely developed areas.

Counties also are reconsidering the impact fee because it has encouraged road construction, and counties face increasing road maintenance costs. [CityLab] – Mike Seemuth