Alternative funding for mobility in Florida

During Florida's 2008 legislative session, considerable interest was expressed in the concept of a mobility fee, yet varying interpretations surrounded the nature and composition of such a fee. In June 2009, the Florida Legislature enacted the Community Renewal Act, requiring the State of Florida to evaluate and consider implementation of a mobility fee to replace the transportation concurrency system and setting forth certain objectives for the fee. This paper reports on research conducted for the Florida Department of Community Affairs and the Florida Department of Transportation in support of this legislative directive. It explores two approaches for a mobility fee that advanced the legislative criteria and discusses practical implications of implementing a mobility fee in Florida. One approach was the concept of a modified impact fee that is sensitive to vehicle miles of travel (VMT) and is based upon improvements in an adopted mobility plan that includes all modes of transportation. Florida has considerable experience with impact fees, making this approach a potentially viable enhancement to existing planning and growth management systems. A fee with increased sensitivity to VMT could discourage urban sprawl more effectively than existing growth management systems by rewarding mixed-use and other development near or within activity centers. Another approach, which could complement the modified impact fee, is an expanded transportation utility fee (TUF). The idea of TUFs is not new, but their design and application has heretofore been limited in terms of the categories of expenses covered, geographic scope, and comprehensiveness of assessment. The proposed model expands on these traditional applications so TUFs could serve as an ongoing revenue source for broader transportation system needs, including transit operating costs. Finally, the paper will present a conceptual mobility planning and implementation framework for a mobility fee.