A year ago the Flagler Beach City Commission increased some impact fees and adopted new ones that increased the cost of building a house by $5,000, but also provided the city with needed revenue to defray the impact of new development on the city’s infrastructure, its parks, police, fire and library services, as impact fees are designed to do. The fees target new residents and businesses.
Commissioner Rick Belhumeur was disappointed that the new schedule did not also include a transportation impact fee. He even cast a dissenting vote when his colleagues approved the schedule.
Last week, the commission approved a $140,000 appropriation for a “mobility study,” an essential step before the city can impose a transportation “mobility fee.”
It is no longer called a transportation impact fee, because a “mobility” fee’s purpose is broader than transportation fees. It’s not just about adding lanes and sidewalks anymore, or simply increasing road capacity for cars and trucks. It’s about making even existing roads flow better, or examining parking concepts, or taking account of pedestrians, bicyclists, even water taxis.
Transportation impact fees are typically paid for new or wider roads. A mobility fee may pay for parking structures, “mobility hubs,” shuttles, traffic-calming devices, bike lanes, and other infrastructure designed to improve the quality of transportation, if not life. A key difference between impact fees and mobility fees is that impact fees are based on vehicle miles traveled. Mobility fees are based on person miles traveled, which includes all modes of travel–not just the car.
Palm Beach Gardens-based Nue Urban Concepts will prepare the study, which will include a parking analysis and recommendations as part of its “mobility action plan.” Among other considerations, the study will examine the potential for a parking structure from where the city would provide shuttles, water taxis not excluded. The study will also analyze on-street parking, pricing, restrictions and permitting, dovetailing with the commission’s interest in developing paid parking. (See: “Flagler Beach Gets Its First Glimpse at App-Based Paid Parking, and Guardedly Likes What It Sees.”)
The company presented its proposal to the commission on Feb. 13, including its cost. (See the full presentation here.) Flagler Beach is piggy-backing on a contract Nue Urban Concept signed with Gainesville for a similar study. The contract has a two-year window.
“When we chose the things that we wanted to have in that study,” Belhumeur said of the study that led to the 2024 fees, “nobody thought about roads and impact and mobility. So this is an after-the-fact. We’re just updating what we missed on the last time we had a study on impact fees, because we need roads and sidewalks in a lot of places, and so forth.”
The likely mobility fee schedule is not a mystery: a 2,500-square-foot house would be charged a one-time fee of $2,625. Hotels and motels would pay much more, retail and offices significantly more. In Palm Coast, the builder of a single-family house pays $3,311. Schools, houses of worship, and day care centers pay between $2,400 and $5,400 per 1,000 square feet. Health clubs pay nearly $10,000 per square foot, while hotels and motels pay less than $2,000, fast food restaurants pay $22,000 per square foot, and so on. (See Palm Coast’s full impact fee schedule here.)
The $140,000 appropriation for the study took aback a few residents attending last Thursday’s meeting. “That’s 140 grand. That is mucho dinero en Espanol,” Mark Imhoff of Ocean Palm Drive asked. “I just want to know what that’s for and why we have to be in such a hurry to approve it?”
“Tell me why we need to spend $140,000 to a consultant who doesn’t live here, doesn’t benefit from our products,” another resident said.
Residents were misunderstanding what the fee was for. They thought it was to guide the city in buying new police and fire trucks. “This has absolutely nothing to do with public vehicles,” City Attorney Drew Smith said. “It’s studying the traffic patterns and not just vehicular traffic. This has been the change in the last 10-15, years, is the push for multimodal, and how are cars, vehicles, scooters, bicycles, electric bicycles–how is everything interacting, and then developing a plan for a more efficient interaction, keeping all of those vehicles moving and moving in a safe manner.”
That’s one focus of the mobility study. The second is to determine what mobility fee can or should be levied. It would not be levied on existing residents–at least not directly, though if a resident were to move from an existing home to a new house with a transportation impact fee, that fee would be part of the buying price. As Belhumeur–himself a builder–put it, “not just developers, but people building their personal house as well: their impact fees, you have to pay when you get your permit.”
“The purpose of a local government adopting a mobility fee, just like other impact fees, is so when new development comes to town, new development pays for those impacts,” Smith said. “In this case, it would be on the mobility system of the city, so that the existing taxpayers, the existing businesses aren’t having to fund the improvements necessary to support growth. So it’s an impact fee, not a fee charged to existing residents.” If there is any hurry, it is to ensure that any new development pays its fair share.
State law requires local governments to conduct a study justifying impact fees before levying them. “That’s what that study is all about,” the attorney said. “You can’t bring in those dollars from the development coming in without the impact fee, and you can’t get to the impact fee without a study.”
Callmeishmael says
Money well spent. This is what progressive cities do to expand and modernize existing assets. Palm Coast, pay attention!
Mr. Galaxy says
There’s no need to pay $140k for a study when all you need to do is read the various comments sections on Flagler Live and local Facebook Groups from the thousands of civil engineers that just so happen to live here and have the time and inclination to fart around on the internet all day offering up their unbridled expertise.
JimboXYZ says
This has got to be another sick joke, $ 140K for this wasted study to overthink what has already been done there for A1A at least. and the residential streets a block, 2 or 3 West has stop signs for every odd even street that runs East & West. Take A1A, drainage islands down the middle of it, speed limit reduced to 25 mph. and we are still getting the village idiots that have either killed themselves or created traffic collisions that end up with the Fire department being scrambled for a gridlock. The one’s that can’t do 25 mph, they need to relocate elsewhere. It’s just that simple, obey the speed limits, leave the 2+ second rule for safe following distance for ideal weather conditions & pay attention. And the losers that are impaired, regardless of whether they are pedestrian, cyclist or motorist, they need to own their addictions & impairments for accountable & responsible. Getting drunk is a choice, as is anything beyond that for controlled substance abuse to a Fentanyl OD. Driving a motor vehicle shouldn’t be this hard, yet for those few, which are far too many, the challenge is going to be whether they survive the commute. The stupidity of the Village Idiots, is costing another $ 140K to study asphalt & traffic flow. With the growth, the days of a top to bottom 45 mph on A1A are over, there are going to be areas where it’s 45, 35 & 25 mph. When those higher speed areas grow to more population density, the higher speed limit zones will disappear to an eventual 35 to 25 mph speed limit. No $ 140K study necessary for common “bleeping” sense. And if you’ve lived there all your life, it’s never been that way before, those excuses aren’t enabled. This is what changes, make the pivot for the adjustment and don’t whine about traffic, speed limits & whatever else that confirms that you are the FL Man nobody wants to become in a local news story.
The Villa Beach Walker says
This is a great initiative. Thanks to Commissioner Belhumeur and the Commission. The City could run a shuttle service from North 10th Street and Central Avenue to South 12th Street and then back along Flagler Avenue from S 12th to North 10th. That route includes many of the City’s existing parking lots. It would also allow people to park in one of a couple of different church parking lots. There are 50 parking spaces in just one of the Santa Maria Del Mar Catholic Church lots on N Flagler Avenue that are rarely used on weekdays.
JimboXYZ says
Evident that the pedestrian crosswalks are going to happen A1A has had the one in front of the pier for quite some time. And SR-100 from A1A to at least where Margaritaville’s block of road is not erected has at least a couple of them with the center concrete islands in place. SR-100 in that regard is going to be single lane traffic with limited time constrained parking for that business district of sorts. As A1A was rebuilt at a certain street location, islands appear between each street. A common sense & gut feel is additional pedestrian crosswalks will be implemented where there are no stormwater drain islands like Ponce Inlet & Ormond Beach (South of Granada/SR-40) is. Does St Augustine A1A have them yet ? Mobility in Flagler Beach ? That’s the usual transportation people of all ages have chosen. The golf carts, those are really those Bass Pro Shop ATV vehicles (like what Daytona Beach Shores, FL allows), I understand they have seatbelts, like cars the passengers & drivers will need to be required to use those seatbelts. Get used to 10-15-20 mph zones or slower as traffic conditions increase. For those that oppose it, realize that any pedestrian arriving at those pedestrian walks has a right of way to cross, that means, like it or not, you will stop for them to cross. Those will be ordinances, almost certain they are state statute. pretty much with citation-able infractions that will affect your driver’s license for points & fines. And FBPD will enforce those. It has to be said, because there will be that rare motorist that will undoubtedly challenge the new order of all things mobility & the pecking order of most vulnerable for right of way. Again, a common sense thing.
“Pedestrian crosswalks are marked with a large yellow sign depicting a figure walking – and that is your only indication of a pedestrian crosswalk. Many Florida pedestrian crosswalks have yellow flashing lights installed. When the lights are flashing, all traffic must stop and allow the people to cross the street. Sometimes, especially during tourist season, there are significant amounts of people crossing the street – but they always have the right of way.”
https://probinskylaw.com/2021/10/pedestrian-crosswalk-laws-in-florida/
This surprises me they waited this long for the mobility study ? They knew they were going in this direction with the growth of the entire county. It’s really 4 years too late.