What the Mobility Fee can do for Downtown Jacksonville
According to the recently released JAX 2025 survey, a better downtown is at the top of the wish list of its 14,016 respondents. However, Councilman Richard Clark's proposed three year moratorium of the mobility fee could stunt the redevelopment of downtown Jacksonville and leave the average taxpayer carrying the financial burden it leaves behind.
The purpose of the award winning 2030 Mobility Plan is to build upon existing policies through the adoption of land use and transportation policies that support mobility, in partnership with the effective application of a new transportation improvement and mitigation funding mechanism. That funding mechanism, which replaced Jacksonville's broken Fair Share Agreement system, is known as the mobility fee. Using this dual approach to tackle the growth management challenges facing Jacksonville, the objectives of the 2030 Mobility Plan are as follows:
1. Support a variety of transportation modes
2. Reduce vehicle miles traveled
3. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
4. Promote a compact and interconnected land development form
5. Improve the health and quality of life for Jacksonville residents
With this in mind, here are three of many things the mobility plan and fee can provide for downtown revitalization:
1. Mobility Fee incentivizes infill and redevelopment projects
While those opposed claim the mobility fee kills private sector development, the opposite is true. The mobility fee is a mechanism that guides development to be fiscally sustainable for the City of Jacksonville in the long term. It forces new development to cover the cost of its negative impact on existing publicly funded infrastructure. On the other hand, the Mobility Fee's credit adjustment system incentivizes development projects that invest in infill and redevelopment sites where sufficient public infrastructure to support said development already is in place.
With the amount of infrastructure already invested in downtown, it's an environment where every project, large or small, would be considered infill or redevelopment.
2. The Mobility Fee funds mass transit projects that connect adjacent neighborhoods with downtown and stimulate Transit Oriented Development
Mobility fee funds generated by new development are utilized on transportation projects that will alleviate the negative impacts those developments place on the existing public infrastructure system. In the suburban areas of the city, mobility fees generated will fund context sensitive street projects that are multimodal friendly. In the urban core, where higher densities are encouraged, mobility fees will be used to fund alternative forms of mobility. Included, are mass transit systems such as commuter rail lines between downtown and Jacksonville's suburbs and streetcar lines tying downtown with adjacent neighborhoods.
For example, Mobility Zone 7's priority project, which is funded 100% by the mobility fee, is a $36 million streetcar line connecting the Northbank and JTA Skyway with Brooklyn and Riveride's Five Points and eventually Park & King district. A side benefit of this project is that it encourages market rate mixed use transit oriented development in LaVilla and Brooklyn. It also effectively connects Riverside's population with downtown.
3. The Mobility Fee attempts to level and playing field between market rate suburban and urban development
There is a reason it tends to be cheaper for private development to operate in areas outside of downtown. It is because we have subsidies development in these areas for several decades by bearing the brunt of the costs associated with constructing new infrastructure, such as highways. Prime examples of these subsidies are currently coming in the form of the First Coast Outer Beltway and State Road 9B. This creates an uneven playing field when evaluating the redevelopment of previously occupied sites. The mobility fee somewhat levels this playing field by passing the cost of infrastructure needed to support new development to the new development that generates the need.
Coupled with incentives for infill and redevelopment, along with investments in multimodal projects that enhance livability in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, it stimulates a downtown business environment where private investment makes fiscal sense because of the higher quality-of-life offered.
A three year moratorium on collecting mobility fees not only stymies economic development and job creation in the suburbs, it also negatively impacts efforts on the revitalization of downtown Jacksonville. Clark's moratorium hurts downtown by preserving a system that subsidizes bad growth patterns on the city's fringes at the expense of the city's heart, leaving taxpayers to pick up the pieces. Let's put this bad idea to rest and let Jacksonville finally proceed with an economic move into the 21st century.
Article by Ennis Davis
1. Support a variety of transportation modes
2. Reduce vehicle miles traveled
3. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
4. Promote a compact and interconnected land development form
5. Improve the health and quality of life for Jacksonville residents
With this in mind, here are three of many things the mobility plan and fee can provide for downtown revitalization:
1. Mobility Fee incentivizes infill and redevelopment projects
While those opposed claim the mobility fee kills private sector development, the opposite is true. The mobility fee is a mechanism that guides development to be fiscally sustainable for the City of Jacksonville in the long term. It forces new development to cover the cost of its negative impact on existing publicly funded infrastructure. On the other hand, the Mobility Fee's credit adjustment system incentivizes development projects that invest in infill and redevelopment sites where sufficient public infrastructure to support said development already is in place.
With the amount of infrastructure already invested in downtown, it's an environment where every project, large or small, would be considered infill or redevelopment.
2. The Mobility Fee funds mass transit projects that connect adjacent neighborhoods with downtown and stimulate Transit Oriented Development
Mobility fee funds generated by new development are utilized on transportation projects that will alleviate the negative impacts those developments place on the existing public infrastructure system. In the suburban areas of the city, mobility fees generated will fund context sensitive street projects that are multimodal friendly. In the urban core, where higher densities are encouraged, mobility fees will be used to fund alternative forms of mobility. Included, are mass transit systems such as commuter rail lines between downtown and Jacksonville's suburbs and streetcar lines tying downtown with adjacent neighborhoods.
For example, Mobility Zone 7's priority project, which is funded 100% by the mobility fee, is a $36 million streetcar line connecting the Northbank and JTA Skyway with Brooklyn and Riveride's Five Points and eventually Park & King district. A side benefit of this project is that it encourages market rate mixed use transit oriented development in LaVilla and Brooklyn. It also effectively connects Riverside's population with downtown.
3. The Mobility Fee attempts to level and playing field between market rate suburban and urban development
There is a reason it tends to be cheaper for private development to operate in areas outside of downtown. It is because we have subsidies development in these areas for several decades by bearing the brunt of the costs associated with constructing new infrastructure, such as highways. Prime examples of these subsidies are currently coming in the form of the First Coast Outer Beltway and State Road 9B. This creates an uneven playing field when evaluating the redevelopment of previously occupied sites. The mobility fee somewhat levels this playing field by passing the cost of infrastructure needed to support new development to the new development that generates the need.
Coupled with incentives for infill and redevelopment, along with investments in multimodal projects that enhance livability in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, it stimulates a downtown business environment where private investment makes fiscal sense because of the higher quality-of-life offered.
A three year moratorium on collecting mobility fees not only stymies economic development and job creation in the suburbs, it also negatively impacts efforts on the revitalization of downtown Jacksonville. Clark's moratorium hurts downtown by preserving a system that subsidizes bad growth patterns on the city's fringes at the expense of the city's heart, leaving taxpayers to pick up the pieces. Let's put this bad idea to rest and let Jacksonville finally proceed with an economic move into the 21st century.
Article by Ennis Davis