What is a multimodal impact fee ordinance?
An impact fee ordinance is a critical tool that local governments use to ensure that new development contributes their fair share towards the cost of public infrastructure. When a new residential or commercial building goes up, it increases the demand for services like roads, schools, parks, and emergency services. A multimodal impact fee ordinance specifically focuses on offsetting impacts associated with new development to our transportation networks. Impact fees are charged to developers to help cover these additional costs. This way, the financial burden of expanding public services doesn’t fall solely on current residents and businesses, and the community can continue to grow sustainably without compromising the quality of life.
Why are we updating the Pinellas County Multimodal Impact Fee Ordinance?
As a redeveloping county, Pinellas County has continued to see growth and redevelopment far exceeding previous population and employment growth projections which continue to strain our existing infrastructure. Furthermore, the existing ordinance has not kept up with the increased demand for multimodal infrastructure by new development, nor has it kept pace with inflationary pressures seen in recent years. For these reasons, we at Forward Pinellas in partnership with Pinellas County, the City of St. Petersburg, the City of Clearwater, and the City of Largo are all working to update the existing ordinance to better accommodate the growth and redevelopment Pinellas County is facing. This updated ordinance will work to ensure that as new development comes online a robust multimodal infrastructure can continue to meet the needs of our residents and businesses alike.
When will the new Pinellas County Multimodal Impact Fee Ordinance go into effect?
We anticipate this work to take place over the next 18 months, beginning in August 2024. Our effort is broken into two phases, the first of which will focus on substantial outreach related to what is currently working and/or not working with the existing ordinance and how we intend to improve the ordinance moving forward. This phase will take about 6 months. The second phase will consist of an update to the associated fees within the ordinance, which will take place over the course of 12 months following the completion of phase one. A draft update of the ordinance will be reviewed by the Forward Pinellas Board who will make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. The Board of County Commissioners will then take action on the ordinance.
Forward Pinellas and our funding partners have selected Benesch as the lead consultant to work with our team on this ordinance update.
