Councilman Clark to sponsor new 3-year Mobility Plan fee moratorium legislation

[Ocklawaha]

The stellar moment of the Council meeting was made in response to a Bike Jax(?) gentleman who pointed out our terrible bike and pedestrian infrastructure and the fact that we missed out on $3,000,000 worth of improvements that could have been collected in Mobility Fees.

Jacksonville City Councilman Bill Gulliford, with Bill Bishop apparently nodding in approval questioned if we could really do anything with just $3 Million. "$3 Million isn't enough to do any of the infrastructure improvements your talking about, so it really isn't going to make much difference. You'll have to add many times that amount and you are going to have to find it someplace else, in property taxes, license fees, sales tax... Somewhere."

So using that as a baseline here is what could be done with $3 million:

(Several good examples of what $3 mil. can buy snipped...)

Ock, you should really send this post verbatim to the Times-Union, Folio Weekly, Ken Amaro, First Coast News I-Team, etc. 
These yahoos on city council deserve a good old fashioned public shaming (I WAS going to say tar and feathering) for pooh-poohing a "measly" $3 million in potential mobility fees that could be used to really improve the city.

Good idea! Consider it done.

[Debbie Thompson]

Additional talking point:  Heard on GMA this morning that gasoline prices are up $.42 in the last month alone.  And that's before the summer driving season.  I haven't been tracking exact prices locally, but I have noticed gas jumping several cents a gallon about once or twice a week in the last month or so.

[Ralph W]

Track This!

Eight weeks ago, the Saturday before Christmas, I paid $2.98 per gallon, now, it's $3.65 and up.

[sheclown]

hearings today and tomorrow  in committee.

[Bridges]

Anyone planning on going to the meetings today and tomorrow?  I don't think I can make today.  Hopefully I will be able to be at Finance tomorrow.

[Koula]

Myself and many area cyclists are planning to attend the Feb 26th meeting. A bunch of us came away from the City Council meeting last week, realizing we totally left out public transit issues, as a few folks have pointed out here-- so yes, some of us will speak and include bus/rail issues as well next week!

[Debbie Thompson]

Committee agendas for this week:
 
Here's the times of the meetings.  Rules over, maybe a few could still make today's TEU at 2:00 or tomorrow's finance at 10:00.  That should be a good place to point out what projects we haven't been able to do due to NOT having the mobility fee.

Finance 2/20 at 10:00
 Rules 2/19 at 10
 TEU 2/19 at 2 pm
 
It is tough for most of us to attend meetings during the day -- especially given that today is the 19th! However, if you are able to attend, please go and let us know how Clark's moratorium is moving through committee.

[Bill Hoff]

It wasn't discussed this morning.

[thelakelander]

I've been working on some stuff to send to council and the DIA members.  I plan to run a few articles on the mobility fee moratorium this week (possibly tomorrow and Friday) as well.  Here are at least two that I'm nearing completion on:

What lost mobility fee funds could have paid for

So far the City of Jacksonville has lost $4,683,555 in the form of waived mobility fees since October 2011.  Assuming additional projects already approved for mobility fee waivers move forward, that number balloons to $27.45 million. When compared to +$300 million being invested on the construction of a 15-mile Outer Beltway segment by FDOT, this may seem like peanuts and an insufficient amount of funds to do something grand. 

While this amount of cash may not immediately fund the construction of a streetcar or highway widening, it was more than enough to significantly impact the city's poor bicycle and pedestrian network. Here is a brief look, by mobility zone, at sample projects that could have been funded by dollars already lost from last year's moratorium.

What the Mobility Fee can do for Downtown Jacksonville
According to the recently released JAX 2025 survey, a better downtown is at the top of the wish list of its 14,016 respondents. However, Councilman Richard Clark's proposed three year moratorium of the mobility fee could stunt the redevelopment of downtown Jacksonville and leave the average taxpayer carrying the financial burden it leaves behind.

[Bridges]

What the Mobility Fee can do for Downtown Jacksonville
According to the recently released JAX 2025 survey, a better downtown is at the top of the wish list of its 14,016 respondents. However, Councilman Richard Clark's proposed three year moratorium of the mobility fee could stunt the redevelopment of downtown Jacksonville and leave the average taxpayer carrying the financial burden it leaves behind.

I pointed this out at the last council meeting.  I went to the bathroom and there, right outside the bathroom in city hall is a JAX 2025 poster.  Imagine It!  Build It! Reach It!

I told the council that the mobility plan is the "Imagine It", and in that, it told us how to build it.  This is why the mayor needs to be on board.  We did a decade of vision studies and built this plan with some of the brightest people, and now the plan is about to be rendered useless (again).  If we can't win this battle, what hope is there for Jax 2025?

[tufsu1]

Myself and many area cyclists are planning to attend the Feb 26th meeting. A bunch of us came away from the City Council meeting last week, realizing we totally left out public transit issues, as a few folks have pointed out here-- so yes, some of us will speak and include bus/rail issues as well next week!

great to hear Koula!

[thelakelander]

Here's the amount of money lost by last year's one year mobility fee moratorium, as of 2/13/13.  The $3 million mentioned by Councilman Gulliford is now approaching $5 million already lost.  By this fall, it could be as much as $27 million.



Here is the amount of money lost by mobility zone so far.  It appears Riverside/Avondale's zone (zone 7) and the area east of Southside Boulevard (zone 2) have lost the most money so far.  Looking on the bright side, it's not like Riverside and the surrounding neighborhoods could not have benefited from nearly $1 million that would have went directly to transit, bike and ped projects in their community.

[Bridges]

I think you might have Arlington and NW Springfield swapped.  I don't know if just their names and zones or the money are swapped.  Isn't Arlington Zone 9 and NW Springfield Zone 8?

[thelakelander]

^No, they appear to be correct.

[Bridges]

Was downtown and thought I'd pop in to finance committee.  Don't think i can stay the whole time, but it says "2nd" next to the moratorium bill.  Rules and TEU also say 2nd. I assume this means that its read again and then talked about next meeting?