What killing the Mobility Fee Moratorium means for you

[thelakelander]

There are cases where you won't pay a fee.  For example, if you redeveloped or replaced an existing blighted shopping center, such as Arlington's Town & Country Shopping Center, you'd get credit for the trips the previous development already had approval for.  Depending on what you put in its replacement, you'd end up not paying anything or a significantly lower fee than building on a never developed site.  This credit adjustment system is intended to level the playing field and help drive market rate redevelopment opportunities to areas of town where a significant investment in public infrastructure has already been made.

[simms3]

I think the fear of existing developers in Jax is that they have no development experience other than finding "undiscovered" or "off-market" pine forest and developing/selling SFR lots and new spec strip/neighborhood centers to serve those new communities (or suburban garden apartments in Vestcor's case).  This, of course, goes on in every city, but usually these aren't the developers that hold sway with the central city council and usually aren't familiar to most of the public in central cities.  I guess in Jacksonville's case since there is no infill happening and hundreds of square miles of developable pine land left the influence is had by a different breed of developer.

I think Hallmark is really the only deal in town that has done basically everything at this point, from infill office (Everbank) to infill apts (220 Riverside I think) to industrial to garden apts to suburban office, limited-service hotel, institutional, etc.  What are leaders there saying about the moratorium?

Website seems to be UC right now, but here it is:
http://www.hallmarkpartners.com/

[Bridges]

I agree with many of your points except number 3 which I know first hand is not true. There has been development because of the moratorium. If you are going to be credible I would suggest you verify your claims. I do agree though that we need to look hard at not extending. The purpose was short term and I think it has seen its usefulness.
Sincerely,
Bill Gulliford

Gulliford back to me.  My 3rd point in my list was to point out the LA Fitness we've all talked about.  I said they were coming to Jacksonville regardless of the moratorium, citing their current corporate strategy and existing developments around the state. 

I'm not sure I fully understand his last sentence, but it sounds like the moratorium has more sympathizers than we think.

[CityLife]

What are leaders there saying about the moratorium?

I was actually coming to post about this. Does anyone know where Mayor Brown stands on the matter and whether or not he intends to get involved?

Really great piece Ennis. Hopefully that information is able to rally the unusual suspects (those not in the urban core).

To the Lakelander's last post, in SJC those redevelopment credits are often given out to reduce or eliminate impact fees on projects, despite not being nearly as built out as Jax. Given our plethora of HORRENDOUS and outdated strip shopping centers all over town, the Mobility Fee may be the only way to encourage redevelopment of those areas (Beach Blvd, Regency, Westside, etc). Otherwise, Jacksonville may be strongly in the running for America's ugliest large city in 10-20 years.

[simms3]

Bridges - Gulliford also reached back out to me.  I think it's impressive when CC members respond to voter emails.

CityLife - was referring moreso to the leaders/partners at Hallmark Partners, which I would consider to be a reputable, experienced Jacksonville-based development firm.  Of course I would also love to hear a firm opinion from Mayor Brown, as well, but have come to expect no leadership from him in any arena.

[thelakelander]

Is Gulliford claiming that LA Fitness would have never come to Jax without the moratorium in place? LA Fitness signed an agreement with Sleiman to be their local master developer before discussion about the original moratorium started. Also, at least two of their selected locations would not have had to pay a fee anyway because they are either in an existing center (University Blvd) or in an existing center in another city (Atlantic Beach). We ended up subsidizing the construction of a new location in a Sleiman development. If we didn't, it probably would have ended up redeveloping a space in another existing center, if the fee were truly a problem.

[fieldafm]

The very real fact is that LA Fitness signed a master development agreement before the moratorium (a concurrency fee was calculated on that LA Fitness project at Atlantic and Kernan before the Mobility Plan went into place). 

Additionally, the cost associated with that project went down DRAMATICALLY under the Mobility Plan.  Under the old fair share program, the developer would have had to pay $993,448 in concurrency payments.  Under Mobility, the developer would have had to pay $247,448 in mobility fees... a reduction of 75%. 

That same developer has a multi-family project that applied for a Mobility Fee calc, but that has since expired and is merely trying to extend the moratorium to save money on that project along with two gas stations. 

[CityLife]

CityLife - was referring moreso to the leaders/partners at Hallmark Partners, which I would consider to be a reputable, experienced Jacksonville-based development firm.  Of course I would also love to hear a firm opinion from Mayor Brown, as well, but have come to expect no leadership from him in any arena.

Sorry, I was skimming your post, but that is an excellent point about Hallmark. Perhaps you can shoot them an email or a phone call? As someone who is in the game, you should have an in there. And sadly, you are probably right about Brown.

I plan to make a call to an out of town development firm who has a stake in the Mobility Fee debate and hope to have something concrete before the hearing.

[fieldafm]

I think Hallmark is really the only deal in town that has done basically everything at this point

There are in fact several others. 

[fsujax]

Interesting article in the Business Journal today about the building boom going on in St Johns County, the permits pulled there outpace Duval for home building and guess what they did not completely suspend or do away with their impact fees or fair share assessments. They did reduce them, i believe.

[fieldafm]

The impact fee in St Johns County is $11,000 per single family home. 

If an impact fee hurts growth in Duval County, why are building permits in St Johns County still outpacing Duval?

[simms3]

I think Hallmark is really the only deal in town that has done basically everything at this point

There are in fact several others. 

Who?

[thelakelander]

Interesting article in the Business Journal today about the building boom going on in St Johns County, the permits pulled there outpace Duval for home building and guess what they did not completely suspend or do away with their impact fees or fair share assessments. They did reduce them, i believe.

We reduced ours between 50-75% by replacing concurrency/fair share with mobility fees.  Then we decided not to collect anything at all.

[Bridges]

Is Gulliford claiming that LA Fitness would have never come to Jax without the moratorium in place?

I think it just shows the kind of misinformation out there.  Especially when a developer(s) has a direct line to the council and mayor's ear. 

[CityLife]

Interesting article in the Business Journal today about the building boom going on in St Johns County, the permits pulled there outpace Duval for home building and guess what they did not completely suspend or do away with their impact fees or fair share assessments. They did reduce them, i believe.

They actually just increased them this fiscal year, which started October 1st. At least for commercial projects. I'll check on residential Monday.