An Ordinance By The Pasco County Board Of County Commissioners Amending The Pasco County Land Development Code Section 1302.2 Mobility Fees, To Increase The Mobility Fees For Various Uses Beyond The Phase-In Limitations In Section 163.31801(6), Florida Statutes; And Other Amendments As Necessary, For Internal Consistency; Providing For Applicability; Repealer; Providing For Severability; Inclusion In The Land Development Code, And An Effective Date.

2:24:25You're not done yet.

2:24:26I know. Item P eight, you will also be sitting as a local planning agency. It's PDE twenty six zero five two four, an ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners. Amending the Pasco County Land Development Code section thirteen oh two point two mobility fees to increase the mobility fees for various uses beyond the the phase in limitations in section one sixty three point three one eight zero one section six Florida statutes and other amendments as necessary For

2:24:57internal consistency, providing for applicability, repealer, and providing for severability, inclusion in the land development code, and an effective date.

2:25:07Okay. All right, Nicky Ren, County Engineer. This presentation is even shorter. I'm gonna do I think six slides including the title. So brief overview on mobility fees. We've already talked quite a bit about this. They pay for new transportation facilities. We add to them gas taxes, sales tax, and TIFF. They can only be updated every four years. The increases that we are proposing as part of this update do require a unanimous vote by the County Commission. A couple of numbers that we didn't give you

2:25:37in the last presentation. We're looking at a $6.9 billion need. That's the cost of infrastructure that is anticipated to be necessary over the next 25 years to support that growth to a million people. Uh about nine hundred fifty new lane miles, which of corresponds to Thirty six? Thirty-eight miles per year is what we're supposed to be constructing. And our pr thirty eight lane miles per year. And our projected revenues are short of the need. If we do nothing to our mobility fee rates, they're

2:26:07short of the need by almost three billion dollars. And then I also mentioned earlier the BCC did hear a workshop on these proposed fee rates in uh November and they endorsed and gave us direction to move forward with the rates that were being that are being shown to you this afternoon. Quick question

2:26:24and

2:26:24to

2:26:24go back to that slide.

2:26:25Yeah. With a shortfall of two point nine billion, you said That's cool. Out to twenty thirty. Twenty fifty. Twenty fifty. Yeah, that's a twenty five year forecast.

2:26:39And is that

2:26:39two point nine billion in twenty twenty six dollars or twenty

2:26:44So what happens is we discount the future revenues to become current dollars. Present value. And then we Yeah, we use present value for the revenues and then we establish costs based on present value costs.

2:26:56So it's two point nine billion present dollars

2:26:59shortfall. That's right.

2:27:01So twenty five years it's Ten million dollars in short cost. Yeah. Reason for

2:27:08the question. Yes. Okay. All right, I understand.

2:27:12Um this is the fee rate table that we're proposing. Now these are We if you're familiar with our mobility fee rate system, we also have urban area and rural area tables and we have various forms of development. We have standard uh mixed-use trip reducing. uh traditional neighborhood development and tr and transit oriented development. So four different types of development. three different areas, what I'm showing you in the summary table is a suburban standard development. Most

2:27:42common, we get most of our fees in that category, and that's why I'm highlighting best content, but the actual fee tables for each of those scenarios are in the attachment. This gives you an idea of the proposed increases. And again, we're proposing to increase the fees over two equal installments, starting with an effective date of July 1 of 2026, and then a second increase in July 1 of 2027. And then keep in mind by state law, when this fee increase is adopted,

2:28:12presuming that it goes forward, we will be restricted from performing another update. For four years. So the fees that are going to be in place on July one of twenty-seven will remain in place for that two year period. Thro almost three year period until we can uh consider another fee schedule and update. Per state law.

2:28:35So some some of those fees are d actually decreasing, correct?

2:28:40So that's that's correct. We have um

2:28:46So so we're we're also one of the objectives of this LDC amendment is to streamline and simplify as much of the code as we can in this particular paragraph. If you ever looked at this section of of the land development code, it's 40 pages of text and then 100 pages of tables. The proposed amendments will reduce that to ten pages of text and four pages of tables. It's remarkably more concise. The details still live in the mobility fee study

2:29:17report, so if you want any of that additional information, you you can seek it out as far as the content that was in the original tables. All of the regulations that are in the land development code are being maintained in the amended language. We're just writing it a lot cleaner and simpler. in this proposed update. So I I say that because one of the items are uh the re the restaurants were consolidating from um the question of subjectively determining are you a high quality um sit down restaurant, are you

2:29:47a turn uh or a high turnover sit down restaurant or are you a quality restaurant Do you have paper napkins? Do you have cloth napkins? Do you have black napkins? Like all that stuff we're we're setting aside and saying, look, If you're building a drive-thru, you're going to have more traffic. you pay a higher rate. If you don't have a drive-thru, you pay a lower rate. Easy. Easy to discern on a building permit. It's not subjective. We move it. It allows everybody to move forward a little more quickly.

2:30:12And then I I noticed another one that was um for owner-builder, uh existing owner-builder.

2:30:18That was at the request of board members at the workshop. They said, Hey, how are our long-term Pasco residents who want to blossom into home ownership going to be protected from these large fee increases? And um I'll let you get guess as to which commissioners were pursuing that, but that there was a desire to introduce a discount structure. So that those long-term Pasco residents who are pursuing a new home as an owner builder would pay reduced fees. And so this I'm very happy to see that.

2:30:48So they also discounted the rate for locally owned small.

2:30:51The L D C amendment allows for those folks to pay the lowest fee, the T O D rate. And the um same thing with the uh s locally owned small businesses, they're currently paying the traditional neighborhood development rate, which is fifty percent of the suburban total. Now they're gonna pay the T O D rate, which is seventy-five percent discount from the suburban standard rate. So th both of those two entities we're we're taking care of our own While still acknowledging that there are a lot of people who are coming from outside of Pasco who want to live here and make this their home,

2:31:22and we want to ensure that we have enough resources. to build as much of the road network to accommodate them as we can.

2:31:32Some of that content is here. We are retaining the 100% discount for hotels, offices, and industrial uses at board request. We are retaining and uh the discount for single family and accessory dwelling units on five plus acre lots. That's a those are existing. Um we are increasing, as I just mentioned, the discount for locally owned small businesses. We've added this new discount for long-term Pasco residents who are constructing Pasco residents. Someone who has resided in Pasco County for at least 10 years.

2:32:01And they're an owner builder. And what

2:32:04uh pursuing an owner builder permit. So that that eliminates the potential of a uh of a of a national home builder saying, Well, I'm selling to a person who has lived here for a very long time. It's it's a unique scenario where we're saying, as an owner builder, if you have lived here for ten years.

2:32:23But that would prevent a long term resident that wants to rebuild their raise and repair their house. uh from hiring a contractor. So if they hired a contractor, a G C to do it, then they wouldn't be s be able to get that discount.

2:32:40I'm I'm guessing we could probably see our way too.

2:32:43Okay.

2:32:44Making that

2:32:45program requires you to say that you're acting as your own contractor, and you have to sign an affidavit that you'll live in the house for a year. Correct. Yeah.

2:32:52And you also have to sign an affidavit that you'll personally supervise all the work.

2:32:56Correct. So if you have someone that let's say they live in a capable of doing that. Right.

2:33:06in with some money, they want to rebuild their like knock the whole house down and start over. Um if they hired a contractor, then they would have to pay the higher higher mobility fees.

2:33:16That's accurate, but that's the only program that exists that we can ensure they would actually live in the home. Right. Any other one they can flip it, that's the problem.

2:33:28Yeah. To your concern, they could sign the affidavit and then they could delegate delegate to the contractor separately without putting their name on the permits to get the oversight and the professional guidance, but still get the low the lower rates. There there are ways that they could navigate the system.

2:33:45Okay. The key with the owner builder program is they at least are representing that they're gonna live in the home for a year. I

2:33:51think. Yeah. Along with that they're representing they're gonna personally oversee the project and have liability for it, so

2:34:00I just was questioning whether or not that met the intent of the The new Language.

2:34:07Go ahead and uh the last three items on here, we are proposing minor amendments to the map borders for the benefit area districts. I'll show you that on a subsequent slide. It controls where the money can be spent. We are simplifying the mobility fee surcharges within the connected city and the VOPH special districts. And then again, we're overall simplifying the language in the land development code to streamline and make it easier to consume. As far as the benefit district map goes, we're clearly adding

2:34:37the two special districts to the map. They're already recognized informally in the Land Development Code. We're making it very easily, easy to discern where those boundaries lie for connected city and villages of Pasadena Hills. And then we're also proposing to change the lines between districts one and two and two and three. The simple point is we would like to draw the lines along county roadways. And that allows for us to recognize the shared travel nature of the adjacent districts, and it allows for us

2:35:08to invest the fees generated in those two districts in those major roadways that both districts depend on. And today our our zones don't do that. So that that's the kind of

2:35:18roads that are on the lines are you can use dis fee money from either district.

2:35:23That's correct. Okay. Yeah, so when you look at the boundary, I'll just use one and two for an example. When you look at the boundary, it follows Shady Hills Boulevard, it follows Sun Lake Boulevard, and it follows Rangeland Boulevard. Those are three projects that we have an intense need to build, and it would be great if we could res if we could pool resources from both of the two districts. in order to afford them. Same answer. Two and three, we follow uh Bellamy and Old Pasco and Wesley Chapel Boulevard. Same purpose. And then we kinda we

2:35:53kinda jump over and we follow Livingston to the south.

2:35:57Okay.

2:35:59Again, recommendation on this one is accept public comment, and then we're asking you to find the proposed amendments consistent with a comprehensive plan.

2:36:08All right. Do we have any public comment?

2:36:13I see no one.

2:36:16Thank you, Nick.

2:36:20Any

2:36:21further comments from up here?

2:36:24Yeah, I mean I agree that it's kind of I understand the position they're in, but it is kind of kicking the can instead of trying to address the root problem.

2:36:35But

2:36:35Yeah, I mean I still like the idea of, you

2:36:37know,

2:36:37forming some kind of a group to basically play a brain trust, see if they can come up with more ideas. I mean, you you have some good ideas, you know, about you know, with bonds and so forth.

2:36:49Geo bonds, yeah. But there's

2:36:51you know, there's maybe other ideas. And I think it's worth forming a you know, a group of uh pe you know, people with work in those areas and you know, can really add something to the conversation. Um never hurt. My biggest concern

2:37:10Is

2:37:13When I look at the

2:37:16Length of time. Over which the the pre-construction planning horizon is For a project. This is gonna take a lot of projects.

2:37:34And make them no longer feasible. And I'm not sure that we're in the right time and place in the economy. where we can just afford to Let these projects fall by the wayside. The biggest employer in this county is the government.

2:37:55The next biggest employer in this county's construction industry. Okay. And if these projects fall by the wayside because now all of a sudden they don't make sense because we jacked up the fees. Unemployment creates us a lot bigger problems.

2:38:15And I don't want to see that happen. And we're already seeing we're already in a housing market. slump. Some are saying we're in a housing market recession. I guess that depends on where you look at it.

2:38:28Houses are staying, I mean. In twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, people lined up outside of houses to offer more than the asking price and buy it the first day it went on to market.

2:38:41Now it takes a hundred and twenty, a hundred and fifty. The house next door to me took over eighteen months to sell. and required a hundred thousand dollar price reduction. That's going on all over the place. There's a time and a place to raise the fees. And that was probably back at the end of twenty twenty one. I'm just not sure this is the right time. and the right place. And this is difficult for me. 'Cause I believe

2:39:11me, I understand the need for the roads and I understand the problem of the lag time. that it takes to design the roads. But I also look at

2:39:23Fees on a schedule are pie in the sky. They're not money in the bank. And if you kill projects in the process then that's even less money you have to work with. That's so that's my concern with all of this.

2:39:38Well the the catch twenty two is is if you keep proceeding on the track that you're on, you add the traffic to the road and you make the deficit bigger between what it takes to build the road and and the roads that it's a lot of different things.

2:39:54That's true. If the project's dead I don't get the the traffic that went along with it.

2:40:00I is there any language in this that um grandfathers any uh applications already in process?

2:40:08Well building permits, yes. Build complete building permit applications submitted before the effective date are always grandfather.

2:40:16Right, but not projects that are in zoning or not plan.

2:40:22Not not zoning site plan, no. Right.

2:40:26These are people that are making big investments. And those are the ones you don't want to have

2:40:31fall out. Right.

2:40:31Right. So those are the ones right. Those are the ones Because some

2:40:33of those people have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to that process at this point and you know, they're not in building permit yet, but they've very well invested, you know, to the tune of Hundreds of thousands, if not even millions. on a project that, you know, now is going to be tremendously more expensive. So is that something that was considered to to add that language? I mean that would be my r recommendation is to add that language for projects that are

2:41:03in process.

2:41:07The the problem with that is that we have so many

2:41:14zonines out there that It would exclude too many It would it would effectively kill the revenue source. I mean

2:41:25But you don't have a revenue source if the project doesn't get done.

2:41:31I understand that but I I don't know where to Where

2:41:34to draw the line.

2:41:35I don't know where to draw that line and I'm also trying to think about all the developers that

2:41:42Like the developer we're dealing with in passing the Hills that needs these fees increased so he can absorb his credits. So If I exempt all the projects that need to pay him so he can absorb his credits, he's not gonna be able to absorb him.

2:42:01I mean how much could an investor have invested before they ever get to site plan? Just if you have to do a comp plan amendment and a zoning change. My next door neighbor charges over five hundred dollars an hour. Yeah, I mean it a major project it could be a tremendous amount of money spent just before before you ever get to site plan.

2:42:26Yeah, I w I mean, I just think in i in terms of fairness, if I put myself in that position, I I would Like, you know, once you if you're a developer and once you get Zoning in in uh And Land use approval. I mean the permitting process should be just part of the process. It I think he should be grandfather after that. After the after you get Your plan approved, basically, your zoning plan approved.

2:42:57Preliminary plan.

2:42:59I'm just gonna be honest with you. Yeah. Chairman. If you vest everybody who's zoned, you might as well just throw this ordinance out. Yeah. You're not going to collect any revenue.

2:43:10Yeah, but well I think John's uh desmands.

2:43:13I don't think you realize how many pro how many zone how many

2:43:15properties we have in zone. I understand your point. I I get that. I get that. But it

2:43:23That we have so many old zonings in this county that that have been I don't think you realize how many zonings I come across my desk that have been zoned that way since nineteen seventy.

2:43:34Yeah, I'm not talking about those properties. I'm talking I'm not talking about speculative zoning. Talking about

2:43:40We have lots of zonings that have been on the books For a long time.

2:43:47You could

2:43:47put

2:43:47a time frame on it. I think the The issue for me is this. It's that you're trying to jam the increase in the short period of time, which is in this window. Window of when a project happens. And I think that's why the legislature gave you this those guys recognize this. It they recognize how long it takes in advance to plan and then start implementing, executing

2:44:18a project. That's why they created the four years. We're trying to do it in two and declare

2:44:27Well they also said that if

2:44:28extraordinary

2:44:29circumstances and that I mean But they also said if you declare extraordinary circumstances you gotta do it in at least two increments.

2:44:38Yeah, well yeah, step four, but But two years is well within that window of time.

2:44:45Extraordinary circumstances. Bieber didn't tell me that the growth was gonna be high. You know what? In In March of 2020.

2:44:57I started noticing all these cars parked on Grand Boulevard in front of my office that had New Jersey license plates, Ohio license plates, and Michigan license plates and New York license plates. Oregon. How many people come here from Oregon?

2:45:12By August. All those license plates from all those other states were still here. They're usually gone. It's too damn hot for them here, right?

2:45:23By twenty twenty one people were lining up out in s front of houses put on the market that afternoon. Nope. You guys in planning development and economic growth were overwhelmed with an avalanche of MPUD applications for all and then we act like, well, Bieber didn't tell us the people were moving here. You knew they were moving here. You process you had to process all their applications.

2:45:51Mike Fizzano didn't know when they needed to get their driver's licenses changed from New York to Florida? I mean, come on, this wasn't a big surprise. The governor was welcome with open arms. We were the covet capital. Come here, escape your escape your oppressive government up north and come to the Free State of Florida. Yeah, we welcomed him with open arms. Maybe we shouldn't have. I don't know, but that's what we did. So we can't act like growth is a surprise. I just don't know how we declare that to be an extraordinary it was something we couldn't

2:46:21foresee.

2:46:22Well and you're only truncating the table by two years, right? So why couldn't that two year window be filled by a bond?

2:46:33Right? And then those pro then those properties would still come online because it's fees they would expect or they were expecting and the revenue would be there to pay the bond. You can't bond impact fee, if that's your question. But there are they're exploring bonds

2:46:51to

2:46:51build remote.

2:46:55Correct. In that case we're bonding tax increment revenue because Pasco Hills has its own tax increment district, which we're bonding that revenue.

2:47:07So it's just in the case of Pastian Hills. So

2:47:13bonds could in particular be couldn't potentially be used elsewhere in the county to f to build roads is what you're saying.

2:47:20You we have a tax a a county wide tax increment district which in theory could be used to bond as well, but it's not. It's it's not as robust a r of a revenue source. As it is in V O P H? I'm not saying it can't be done. I don't wanna be clear, it can be done and just

2:47:39not Well and that revenu s could that revenue source be instead of increasing mobility fees, then you Seek to increase that revenue source instead? That's

2:47:49what we just talked about. That's the revenue source that is under attack by the legislature. That's effectively property taxes. So now let me Uh it's likely to be cut, not increased. I'm not sure the legislature was the one attacking it. The governor's attacking it. Okay, well

2:48:12Somebody in Tallahassee is attacking that revenue source. I don't know.

2:48:17I

2:48:18think that's the

2:48:18governor.

2:48:20I d I don't think we're inclined to increase that revenue source given the current sediment in Tallahassee area.

2:48:30We'll be lucky if we keep to keep it as is. Let me put it that way.

2:48:36I mean nobody likes a fee increase of of any kind. I mean everybody wants to always no matter what it is increase taxes, increase mobility fees. I mean but the the fact of the matter is is there's a shortfall, a significant shortfall. Either if you're gonna have the growth and you want the growth, you need the roads. If you don't need the roads, you can't have the growth. So

2:49:00Yeah, my my fear of it, Jamie, just d I'm not saying for the long term. Only in the short term. Sure. Is that We're kidding ourselves. We're gonna have projects die on the vine. That's fees we're not going to collect. If we were in The mania.

2:49:24Sure.

2:49:25The building mania that we were in in Twenty twenty one through twenty twenty early twenty twenty four.

2:49:35I would say, Well, if a couple fell off the vine, so what? But we're not in that mania anymore. We're in a different situation.

2:49:47Work. We may still have some rezoning, but you know, you go look at the number of rezoning we approved. We used to have to come in here and approve ten and twenty of 'em at a time every other two weeks, okay? Now it's Right, and we were doing 'em in huge numbers. Today was nothin'. Ninety six condo units in an existing development, infill I mean

2:50:14I just don't think it's the right time economically for that. There may be, and maybe things will get Turn around. And there'll be a time. That's just my thoughts and This is one of those areas where you may not have unanimity. Your job your job, Nick, will be to get unanimity when you get to the board 'cause that's part of the statute. Just kinda damn

2:50:41get it here. It's kinda damned if you'll be damned if you don't, you know. Yeah.

2:50:46And they take in a project, just for curiosity, design builder C Mar or something like that. I mean, what is that typically cut out of the life cycle of a project? And is there opportunities for contractor financing on Those projects.

2:51:04It it could be as little as nine months, maybe as much as two years. So quite

2:51:09a bit.

2:51:10Yeah.

2:51:16Yeah, we gotta work through David's colleagues to make sure we're documenting compliance with state procurement regulations on our design build contract or solicitations. Um so you know government is Designed to be accountable.

2:51:31Understand yeah, the other the other the other thought too though is that the developers are usually building on virgin land. But they are so yeah.

2:51:44When the government goes in to widen a road, it's usually an existing road with utilities, power poles, b property damages. It's just a different animal. Yep. So

2:51:56Good call.

2:52:01So Way over here, David.

2:52:09Okay.

2:52:11Okay, you're

2:52:14Duty here is to decide whether it's consistent with the comp plan.

2:52:23Which the agenda memo outlines the reasons it's consistent with the complaint.

2:52:31Well like I said before, I I mean nobody's ever in favor of a fee increase, but I don't think we I don't see really we have a choice here, so I want to move approval. Um that this is consistent with the comp plan.

2:52:42All right, so we have a motion. Do we have a second on the motion? I'll I'll second it. Motion and a second. Any further discussion on that?

2:52:51No further discussion? All in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, like sign?