(To Be Heard Before PDE26-0524) Second Workshop Dedicated To The Extraordinary Circumstances Necessitating The Need For The Mobility Fee Increase To Exceed The Phase-In Limitations In Sections 163.31801(6)(b), (c), And (d), Florida Statutes

3:31Let's move to R thirty two.

3:33Uh okay.

3:37Yeah, that's the one option. All right.

3:41Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. Good afternoon. I didn't explain that to Nick, but we're all good on the fly. Um well good afternoon, Commissioner. Nick Uren, County Engineer. We're going to be talking about mobility fees, and we're only going to be talking about mobility fees this afternoon. As context, the workshop item is an item that is mandated by state law any time that a local government is attempting to or endeavoring to increase their mobility fees above statutory limits.

4:12This is the second extraordinary workshop devoted to the proposed mobility fee rate increases. And I'm going to walk through the agenda with you as well as the content for the workshop. And then we can touch on the proposed ordinance that has the actual fee tables in it. And the language, the code language changes for the land development code. So the agenda is very simple. We're going to cover the statutory limitations on the fee increases. We're going to cover the four extraordinary circumstances that are present in Pasco

4:42County justifying increases that exceed those statutory limits. And then we're going to turn it back to you and members of the public for any discussion. So statutory limitations, we are Permitted to propose fee increases based upon a plan to impose, collect, and use those fees. We are allowed to increase fees if they are less than 25% in two annual increments. If you increase by between 25 and 50 percent, you need

5:12to do it over four annual increments. Some of the proposed increases in our ordinance presented to you this afternoon are increased. Increasing of between 25 and 50 percent, but in two annual increments. So that triggers the requirement for the extraordinary circumstances workshop. And any increases that go above 50% of your current fee also trigger the obligation for the extraordinary circumstances workshop. And we are proposing some fee increases above that 50% threshold. Statute also says you can't increase it

5:42any more often than every four years. It has been more than four years since we've increased our fees, so we're in compliance with that criteria. The four tests for a local government to exceed the statutory limits are perform a recent study, hold those two extraordinary circumstance workshops, make sure that your fee increase is approved by unanimous vote. And that will be very important. We'll come back to that point once more later this afternoon. And last, um make sure your fee increases are implemented

6:12in at least two equal annual installments, and we are proposing to do that in compliance with the law. So four extraordinary circumstances. The first one. We are growing faster than our last fee update anticipated. Last fee update um talked about a population growth of two hundred thirty thousand people. We are now projecting 330,000 people to grow into that seven-figure number. We're looking at a potential of a million people

6:43and I've given you an example. This is the Sun Lake Boulevard Corridor within Angeline. The first aerial photo is from 2020. And when we click forward to twenty twenty six, you see all those homes that have been now platted and are coming out of the ground like mushrooms. They're growing rapidly in Pasco County. And it's our job to ensure that our mobility fees are adequate to provide the roadway infrastructure, the transportation network needed to support that rapid growth. Our

7:13second extraordinary circumstance is higher trip generation. There is an Institute of Transportation Engineers manual that publishes that gets published periodically that looks at how many trips different types of land uses make on a regular basis. That institute recently published an update and showed that several of our common land uses. generate more traffic than we thought they would, than they previously were. And so as we get more data, we are responsive, responsible to adapt to that new data set, and

7:43we're saying people are making more trips. Our third extraordinary circumstance is that infrastructure costs more than we had anticipated in our twenty twenty-one study. We are looking at thirty-one percent increases in capital costs for the same materials that we were planning to use in twenty twenty-one. That means that we need more money to build the same road network.

8:11Well I wanted to show there's meaningful

8:14field of bug and graphs, is that what you're showing?

8:20And what I'm what I'm intending to show is this was also a 2020 photograph before we had begun construction. But in order to take that into the four lane road that it is intended to be And this is a more current photograph of that same intersection where we're gonna widen it out to a four-lane median divided road. We need that additional revenue. And and Commissioner, your point is well taken. We're spending a lot of money at Ridge Road. We're also spending a lot of money widening um Wesley Chapel Boulevard right now. And those projects we got in on previous fee rates because those bids were taken

8:50a couple of years ago, three years ago. uh the projects that we're looking at now are coming in at a higher number. Okay. And then number four, our fourth extraordinary circumstance is a radical decline in other revenues. In particular, I want to emphasize the decline in state and federal revenues predicted to be available for our projects in Pasco County. In 2021, state and federal gas taxes and documentary stamps and vehicle registration fees combined to cover 38% of our infrastructure needs.

9:20In this update, They are only covering eleven percent of the needs. All of that combines to say in an extraordinary summary that More people are coming to Pasco, they're gonna travel more, it's gonna cost more to build the facilities to support them, and we have less other revenue to pay for those costs. So those are our four extraordinary circumstances that we're presenting to you as part of this workshop. Pursuant to state law, it is a workshop. That is intended to allow

9:50for public comment. That's atypical to workshops that you would normally conduct. Normally you don't accept public comment, but presuming the statutory intent or legislative intent of that segment of the law, we are suggesting that you accept public comment and then conduct any board discussion as you see fit. And I do have a separate presentation for the uh first reading of the ordinance, but I'm intending to defer that until after public comment on this item and board discussion, Mr. Chairman. Any

10:20questions

10:21for Nick?

10:22No.

10:23Okay. So this this is a public hearing. We're gonna allow the public to comment. Would anyone like to in the audience like to come forward to speak to this item?

10:34Okay.

10:37Chairman Mari was this advertised This was advertised as a public workshop with the opportunity to comment on these extraordinary circumstances.

10:47Okay. Is there anyone online that wanted to speak to this item?

10:50There's no one online for this item.

10:53Is this just presentation on the can vote on a workshop anyway?

10:57That's correct.