City Council prepares to Halt Mobility Fee

[jcjohnpaint]

I think some of the most irrational decisions are made in the name of desperation.   

[dougskiles]

I think some of the most irrational decisions are made in the name of desperation greed.

Hope you don't mind if I fixed that for you.

[north miami]

seems like here is the problem.

too many people with connections in the real estate and development industries being appointed to positions where it would be impossible for them not to have a conflict of interest.

Pretty much.  The mobility plan taskforce was purposely littered with them. 

[Dashing Dan]

It's really just a variation of a Ponzi scheme.  We give them a lot of our money and somehow the money that we give them is supposed to come back to us with interest. 

The really bad part of all of this is that the money we give them undermines our own (urban) quality of life.

[jcjohnpaint]

seems like here is the problem.

too many people with connections in the real estate and development industries being appointed to positions where it would be impossible for them not to have a conflict of interest.

Pretty much.  The mobility plan taskforce was purposely littered with them.  They got the original mobility fee slashed in half and now they want to pass all of the costs for their negative impacts to you and me.  When you have people with a conflict of interest constantly in the council's ear its easy to understand how one who may not be generally educated on a particular issue can be easily persuaded.

exactly!

[Ocklawaha]

So we're all about to get the shaft, as the developers have convinced our city council to allow them escape any fiscal responsibility and at the same time unload their cost of doing business on the tax payers.

Where is the tea party?  Where are the protesters? Where is the tea party?  Where is the since of responsibility?  Where is the tea party?  How much will we have to refund to developers that have already paid their mobility fees?  Where is the tea party? Will the mayor sign this? Where is the tea party? 

I don't get the math here, according to certain conservative politicos, the government should not use a dime of my tax money to fund rail transportation, or anything but the bare minimum of mass transit.  It is said that mass transit should 'make money', something the tea party would readily agree too. So why is it I'm being asked to pay for infrastructure wherever this band of flimflam artists decide to slap down another new building? Pay for it yourselves gentlemen, and neither tell me your sad stories nor piss on my leg and tell me its raining.

If the collective intelligent conciseness of the local government were equal to that of the famed striped assed  ape we wouldn't be having this discussion.

OCKLAWAHA

[north miami]

                                $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Tacachale]

We're kidding ourselves if we think the mayor won't sign this. He's too new on the job for a fight with the council to be worth it. This is a shocking (but not unsurprising) lack of foresight on the part of the council, and we're stuck with it.

[urbanlibertarian]

Would this moratorium be a violation of FL statute?  Didn't the Mobility Plan replace a previous growth management plan which we are required to have?  If we suspend the fee aren't we suspending our entire plan?

[thelakelander]

Rick Scott killed that when he got into office.

[JeffreyS]

Not surprised.

[Dashing Dan]

Would this moratorium be a violation of FL statute?  Didn't the Mobility Plan replace a previous growth management plan which we are required to have?  If we suspend the fee aren't we suspending our entire plan?

Rick Scott killed that when he got into office.

It's not that simple. 

My understanding is that HB 7207, the bill that made transportation concurrency optional, also requires that some kind of a substitute procedure be implemented. 

I'm pretty sure that the mobility fee would have fulfilled that requirement, but I'm not so sure about the moratorium.  It would be worth looking into.

[tufsu1]

Would this moratorium be a violation of FL statute?  Didn't the Mobility Plan replace a previous growth management plan which we are required to have?  If we suspend the fee aren't we suspending our entire plan?

nope...not in any way.

All that used to be (and still ) required is a committment to mitigate the impacts of development and provide acceptable LOS on infratsructure....and reality is that responsibility lies with the local government....if they don't get developers to do it, they have to do it themselves.

[tufsu1]

stephen....read what Chapter 9J-5 F.A.C said and then get back to me...

https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?id=9J-5.019

Disclosure....most of that was expunged from law as part of the 2011 legislative session

fact is the state oversight never cared who paid for mitigating impacts....just that the mitigation was supposed to occur...and, yes, in the end it is the job of government to provide needed facilities (such as schools and infrastructure).

[tufsu1]

stephen...perhaps this is the diclosure you are looking for:

I work for a planning and engineering firm...and have deone more concurrency/traffic studies and reviews on behalf of local governments than for developers.