What killing the Mobility Fee Moratorium means for you

[CityLife]

SJC did in fact raise their impact fees. Commercial fees used to be $4,218 per 1,000 sq ft. Now it is $4,333 per 1,000 square feet. Residential used to be $11,000 something (don't have it at home) and they are now $12,114 per home.

[fsujax]

Thanks for the update CityLife. It just goes to show developers will build with these fees in place if they really want to be there. This needs to be pointed out to City Council.

[dougskiles]

The fact that St Johns is getting around $12,000 per house and is leading the housing recovery is about as compelling evidence as I can find proving that fees have nothing to do with quantity of permits.  They have everything to do with quality of living.

And lest anyone think that we should try to compete with St Johns by being cheaper, I ask - how is that working so far?  Can we go any lower?

We charge nothing and they are pulling away.  Check out the gap in 3rd quarter of 2011 and look at it now.

[fsujax]

Doug we have to make the case to the Council. Great graph.

[dougskiles]

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.

Here is the best response I have for the LA Fitness question:

LA Fitness announces pre-moratorium that they are coming to Jacksonville.  They are excited and so are we.  From all accounts they are a good company, provide a quality product and will create jobs.

They have four sites under construction now.  Only one shows up on the Mobility Fee moratorium list.  Why?  The other three went into abandoned big box locations at existing shopping centers.  Those centers had existing trips associated with them and would have paid no Mobility Fee had the moratorium not been in effect.  This aspect is, IMO, even more valuable than the money collected from the fee.  We could finally begin to utilize existing assets and clean up some of the blight.

I can't argue that the 4th location (Atlantic & Kernan) may not have built at that site without a Mobility Fee moratorium.  However, I feel pretty certain that the only one getting the benefit here was the developer.  Within about 2 miles of that location, there are at least half a dozen underutilized big box centers between Southside and 9A (basically Regency).  What would have happened, is LA Fitness would have said, either you pay the fee, or we are going somewhere where there is no fee (which would have been a mile or so away).

[dougskiles]

Doug we have to make the case to the Council. Great graph.

I have had a several meetings in the past 2 weeks with council members and will have more next week.  If anyone wants to set up a meeting with their district council representative, and would like me to come along, please send me a PM.  We'll try to coordinate schedules.

[simms3]

I can't argue that the 4th location (Atlantic & Kernan) may not have built at that site without a Mobility Fee moratorium.  However, I feel pretty certain that the only one getting the benefit here was the developer.  Within about 2 miles of that location, there are at least half a dozen underutilized big box centers between Southside and 9A (basically Regency).  What would have happened, is LA Fitness would have said, either you pay the fee, or we are going somewhere where there is no fee (which would have been a mile or so away).

Yes.  Exactly.  And to add, perhaps there isn't really a strong enough market for 4 new LA Fitness locations (though they do rely on having many locations as part of the membership package), but the developer was able to make it work for them cost-wise without the fee, signaling potential oversupply (so LA Fitness can cram 4 new centers in one area and a developer gets fees and/or cash flow, and "everybody" wins" except for the city of course).

Besides SJC, every developer's dream is to be able to participate in Manhattan, Boston, DC or SF.  These make the cost of developing in SJC in terms of fees and taxes look like building for free for practice.  It's not about the cost to do business, it's about having the market and means for your development.  If Jax finds a way to attract every Harvard grad and those who serve them, and every company wants to be in Jax as a result, and there is 0% unemployment...you could charge every developer a million dollars just to wait in line to develop in the city and they would still flock.