What the Mobility Fee can do for Downtown Jacksonville

[PeeJayEss]

Impact fees=Taxes

But its OK around here we like to tax the successful and give to the unsuccessful(DT) it is the democratic way.

Car insurance & registration = Taxes. Road construction = Taxes. Filling up your tank = Taxes. Traffic tickets = Taxes. Maintenance = Taxes.

No choice but to drive = The opposite of freedom.

Where do you live/work? Why do you have no choice but to drive? Is your freedom being infringed only in Jacksonville, or do you perceive this as country-wide? But I digress...I just wanted to say, referring to the bolded text, that you don't have to break the traffic laws. I dislike speeding tickets, but I don't call everything I dislike a "tax." Traffic violations are pretty simple to avoid. Not a tax, not even figuratively.

If we are equating the impact fees to taxes, they are smart-bombs of taxes. Yes, the developer will pass on the taxes, of course, but they can't pass them onto me if I do not support their development. The tax will go to those who are using or further stressing the infrastructure in those areas, the people that are buying homes isolated from civilization and the goods they are purchasing from businesses built to serve them in the wild.

[thelakelander]

^Pretty much.  I seriously don't understand why having new development cover its own costs is a problem for some.  I mean, at least the mobility plan and fee structure gives you wiggle room.  If you want your fee reduced, or believes it kills your project, develop on sites or create a project site plan that eliminates or drops the fee.

[peestandingup]

Impact fees=Taxes

But its OK around here we like to tax the successful and give to the unsuccessful(DT) it is the democratic way.

Car insurance & registration = Taxes. Road construction = Taxes. Filling up your tank = Taxes. Traffic tickets = Taxes. Maintenance = Taxes.

No choice but to drive = The opposite of freedom.

Where do you live/work? Why do you have no choice but to drive? Is your freedom being infringed only in Jacksonville, or do you perceive this as country-wide? But I digress...I just wanted to say, referring to the bolded text, that you don't have to break the traffic laws. I dislike speeding tickets, but I don't call everything I dislike a "tax." Traffic violations are pretty simple to avoid. Not a tax, not even figuratively.

Its a national problem, but Jax is one of the worst big cities I've seen for it for a number of reasons. The spread out nature of the town, the highly sucky/unreliable/antiquated mass transit system via bus,  the fact that there's no real thoughtout connected bike network (either dedicated paths or lanes), the fact that sidewalks just abruptly end (or aren't there at all), etc. Or did you think we rank so high for pedestrian/cyclists deaths just by sheer coincidence?

If you don't live & work in the same immediate area, and an area that is even halfway decent for pedestrians (not common here), then your ass is driving. Period. And if you have kids, forget about it. The only people that don't are the ones who simply can't afford it & are the forced to use the bus system & take an extra 2 hours to get to their destination, or the ones who brave the car-centric nature of our infrastructure. Don't believe me? Try it for a month. You'll see. Because I've been there & done that. Its not possible. That is unless you're willing to put your life/your kid's lives in danger, or put up with the city's version of "mass transit" poor people mover.

I'm not even gonna get into your silly notion about traffic violations, but to say they have jack squat to do with safety. Its a form of taxation & revenue generation. Seatbelt violations & going 10 miles over the speed limit on an open road isn't a danger to society & you know that. So lets not pump each other full of BS.

[thelakelander]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Action News has learned the city missed out on nearly $5 million to fix up area neighborhood streets and bike paths.

Megan Griffith is scared to take her 2-year-old child walking on the sidewalks in the Riverside area.

"We don't walk around the streets." She says it's not safe for pedestrians or bicyclists. "The sidewalks are mess up, and pedestrians walk in the street," said Griffith.

Action News found the city missed out on nearly $5 million that would've helped fix the problem. It has to do with what's called a mobility fee moratorium.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/City-losing-out-on-5-million/nrUXwShdn02MNFx6zmtFYg.cspx

[tufsu1]

^ yep...saw this last night

I think you hit on a key point in a post above Lake...you said

" If you want your fee reduced, or believes it kills your project, develop on sites or create a project site plan that eliminates or drops the fee."

Some will say that charging them more to develop in a certain area infringes on their private property rights and is "communist".  Noting that they can reduce the fee even in the outlying areas through site plan revisions counters that argument.

[fsujax]

Glad to see Action News picking up on this story. Where's News4Jax? get Jim Piggot on the case!

[thelakelander]

Great video by Action News.  However, they did miss one major issue.  They mentioned that since the moratorium expired, only $10k has been generated by the fee.  There is a reason for this.  If you applied and were approved for a mobility fee waiver when the moratorium was in effect, you have a year to start construction.  All in all, nearly $28 million in waivers are floating out there.  While we know we've lost $5 million to date, we stand to lose $23 million more by this fall if all projects approved for waivers become reality.

For those who say this is an investment in creating jobs that would not have come if the fee were in place, just how many jobs are you talking about?  In most cases, there were development projects coming on line that would have happened regardless of the fee.  For example, in the case of 7-11, this quote from our facebook comments is pretty damning:

So to 'create jobs', we gave a $323,571 subsidy to a 7-11 (which coincidently signed a master development agreeement to open 55 stores in North Florida over the next five years and only received two mobility waivers out of the eleven stores they opened during the moratorium) that generates an average annual payroll of $90,000. That's a fantastic return on our taxpayer dollars while libraries close, streetlights get turned off, grass goes un-mowed, parks sit in ruin, we fire police officers and a fire station within this particular mobility zone gets threatened with closure... right?

So if someone is claiming the moratorium of last year created jobs, exactly how many, because several created by 7-11, Wendy's, Waffle House expansions, and the national multi-family building boom most likely aren't result of a Jacksonville specific moratorium. So once you take those out of the equation, what's our ROI on the $5 million already lost and the potential $28 million by the end of this year?

[tufsu1]

Glad to see Action News picking up on this story. Where's News4Jax? get Jim Piggot on the case!

One of the stations did a piece last week...but it was misleading in that it made it sound like the fee was to pay for alternative transportation

[fsujax]

^^oh yeah. i remember that, i think it was channel 4.

[peestandingup]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Action News has learned the city missed out on nearly $5 million to fix up area neighborhood streets and bike paths.

Megan Griffith is scared to take her 2-year-old child walking on the sidewalks in the Riverside area.

"We don't walk around the streets." She says it's not safe for pedestrians or bicyclists. "The sidewalks are mess up, and pedestrians walk in the street," said Griffith.

Action News found the city missed out on nearly $5 million that would've helped fix the problem. It has to do with what's called a mobility fee moratorium.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/City-losing-out-on-5-million/nrUXwShdn02MNFx6zmtFYg.cspx

But remember, guys. No one's holding a gun to your head & forcing you to drive in this town. So get out there with your kids on the busted sidewalks that abruptly end, walk in the streets & take them biking on the roads that don't even have shoulders.

Don't forget the life insurance.

[PeeJayEss]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Action News has learned the city missed out on nearly $5 million to fix up area neighborhood streets and bike paths.

Megan Griffith is scared to take her 2-year-old child walking on the sidewalks in the Riverside area.

"We don't walk around the streets." She says it's not safe for pedestrians or bicyclists. "The sidewalks are mess up, and pedestrians walk in the street," said Griffith.

Action News found the city missed out on nearly $5 million that would've helped fix the problem. It has to do with what's called a mobility fee moratorium.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/City-losing-out-on-5-million/nrUXwShdn02MNFx6zmtFYg.cspx

But remember, guys. No one's holding a gun to your head & forcing you to drive in this town. So get out there with your kids on the busted sidewalks that abruptly end, walk in the streets & take them biking on the roads that don't even have shoulders.

Don't forget the life insurance.

I haven't heard of many pedestrians on the sidewalk in Riverside being hit by cars. That's the one place in town where walking might be safe. Use better evidence. Or just explain your personal situation, and we'll analyze whether you really need a car.