The Oviedo City Council on Monday night approved mobility fees on new development to help pay for transportation needs over the next 22 years.
The move follows an Osceola County decision last week to increase its mobility fees.
Oviedo's mobility fees replace an existing transportation impact fee along with the Seminole County mobility fee within city limits. But it still ends up significantly increasing the one-time charges on new development.
For a new 2,200-square-foot home, for instance, the mobility fee is $6,000, an increase of 38% over the other fees combined. New apartment complexes will see a 30% fee increase.
The mobility fee will be lower for affordable and workforce housing. And developments in the downtown area qualify for discounts.
State law limits how much local governments can increase impact fees. To get around that, the city held public workshops and got a report documenting their, quote, "extraordinary circumstances."
The mobility fee and plan eliminate a concurrency requirement -- the need to show that area roads can handle the new traffic.
Planning Manager Debra Pierre wrote in a report to the council that transportation concurrency emphasizes vehicles. The new plan, she wrote, “recognizes the movement of people via (a) multimodal transportation system that provides safe and convenient improvements, services, and programs for people walking, bicycling, riding micromobility devices, microtransit and transit vehicles, using shared mobility services, programs, and new mobility technology, and driving motor vehicles.”
But the mobility plan’s list of projects to be funded doesn’t focus on those programs or the new technology. Instead it includes roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections including roundabouts, and a crosswalk.
The City Council approved the plan unanimously and without comment.
