NEBA Forum Recap: Mobility Fees - Are They Coming Back to Tallahassee?

The Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates (NEBA) held our monthly membership meeting on November 28.   The featured topic was:  Mobility Fees – Are they coming to Tallahassee?  Speakers were Jonathan Paul, with NUE Urban Concepts, and Debbie Dantin, transportation engineer with Dantin Engineering.

Paul is a consultant who is evaluating communities across the State to see if mobility fees are an acceptable alternative to existing impact fees.  He is currently conducting an Alternative Mobility Funding System Study in Tallahassee.  He says he usually recommends ensuring small businesses are not hurt (smaller road impact fees than what would be charged a WalMart) and that fees not be collected until the project is move-in ready and/or has a tenant.

Dantin wants to ensure that if mobility fees are considered that all stakeholders in the community are involved.  She also recommends bringing back the Public Works Department; more public/private partnerships in road development; and that subjective discounts shouldn’t be applied to politically “preferred” projects.

Both agreed that some of the biggest benefits of mobility fees are that every business pays them, not just the last business on the block, and that fees are known up front.

Here are photos from the forum. Thanks to Catherine Baer for taking them and making them available to NEBA.