Commission Approves New Mobility Fees for Transportation

Pasco County commissioners on Tuesday lowered the price developers will pay for new roads as a way to encourage growth that may eventually bring new jobs.

The unanimous vote put in place a new set of levies called mobility fees to replace transportation impact fees that have been in effect for decades.

The impact fees were charged to new construction as a way to make growth pay for new roads caused by development.

Like the transportation impact fees, the mobility fees are charged for construction ranging from housing to retail, industrial or hospitals.

The new mobility fees vary for different parts of the county, though most are lower than the old transportation impact fee they replaced.

Commissioners hope the lower fees, reduced to zero for office and light industrial construction in developed parts of the county, will eventually lure companies and jobs to Pasco.

“We’re actually doing something that’s going to create jobs in this county,” said Commissioner Jack Mariano.

Waiving fees in urban areas for some uses amounts to a tax decrease, he said.

The new fees also are intended to direct growth to places where municipal services such as police, schools, fire departments or libraries are already in place or cost less to provide, said County Administrator John Gallagher.

Fees for new development, including houses and retail, are lower in parts of the county designated as urban than anyplace else in the county. Those areas are mainly along the U.S. 19 corridor and in southern Pasco.

“It costs local government a lot less to provide services in an urban area than in a rural area,” Gallagher said.

The idea of directing growth brought objections from some people at Tuesday’s meeting who said that was limiting freedom of choice.

“You’re trying to force people into living in a specific area,” said Dave Miller of Seven Springs.

He and others said commissioners should postpone a decision.

But business interests wanted the commission to act.

“We need to get a decision one way or the other,” said John Hagen, president of the Pasco Economic Development Council.

Miller said commissioners should simply reduce the existing transportation impact fee instead of creating a new fee structure.

But the mobility fee also lets the county spend some of the money on pedestrian and bicycle paths and a small amount for public transportation, though commissioners were clear it would not go to light rail.

Transportation impact fees could only be spent on roads.

“Mobility fees give the county flexibility,” Gallagher said.

The fees will not generate as much money as the impact fees they replaced and the ordinance commissioners adopted calls for using some gasoline tax revenue, part of a penny sales tax levy and a third of any increase in property tax revenue to make up the difference.

The gas tax money and sales tax revenue already are going to roads, said David Goldstein, chief assistant county attorney.

The ordinance anticipates property values will rise slightly, increasing the county’s revenue. A third of any increase will be siphoned to transportation needs.

Also, some of the fee money will pay for improvements along U.S. 19, Interstate 75, the Suncoast Parkway and parts of U.S. 41 and State Road 54, Goldstein said.

The fee commissioners adopted calls for replacing the transportation impact fee of $10,302 levied uniformly across the county with three different fees for single family homes.

Homes in urban areas such as New Port Richey would pay $5,835 while rural areas, mostly north central Pasco, would pay the most at $9,800.

Suburban areas, including Land O’ Lakes, would pay $8,650.

Cities can adopt the county’s new mobility fees or stick with the current fee framework.

In making the motion to adopt the fee ordinance, Mariano said Pasco will be one of the first counties in Florida to take the step.

“This is about something that started with job creation,” he said. “We’re going to be the leader.”