The City of Cape Coral will not impose mobility fees on new construction, at least not for now.
After months of discussion the city council Thursday did not approve going to mobility fees, instead of impact fees, for new homes and businesses.
The measure needed six of eight council votes for approval; it received five.
Supporters said the mobility fees would have paid for wider roads, more turn lanes, and bike and pedestrian paths to ease traffic congestion.
The fees would have raised costs to build a new, single-family home in the cape by about 12 percent a year, for each of the next four years, to a high of about $5,000. However, according to the wording of the motion, the fee would jump to about $10,000 in 2030, if future councils took no action.
The vote means Cape Coral will stick with impact fees that were set 19 years ago. The fee to build a new, single-family home, remains at $3,347.
Council member Joe Kilraine argued that building costs are not going down, and that the cape must move now to improve roads and other transportation infrastructure.
However opponents argued that the ambiguity about the fees in 2030 could frighten the development and construction industries. Council member Jennifer Nelson-Lastra said developers would be reluctant to make plans to get approval for buildings in 2030, if they feared the fees could jump by a large amount.
Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University.
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