Mobility fee proposal fails with Council deadlock
A plan to replace road impact fees with a different — and higher — tax on new construction failed Wednesday after Cape Coral City Council deadlocked on the issue.
With a tied vote of 4-4, the proposed mobility fee plan failed to move forward. A supermajority of at least six votes in favor was required for passage.
Those opposed were Mayor John Gunter, and council members Laurie Lehmann, Jennifer Nelson-Lastra and Rachel Kaduk.
Gunter said it was a difficult decision as he recognizes the need for transportation-related infrastructure in the city.
“I do believe the growth should pay for growth. I don’t think growth should pay for 100% of the deficiencies that we have outlined in the mobility plan,” he said. “We are partly to blame why we are here today.”
Before council voted, Jonathan Paul, principal with Nue Urban Concepts, presented the final version of the mobility plan and fee. The overall mobility plan for the city included a road and infrastructure plan, multimodal plan, transit plan and mobility programs.
“It’s made up of roadway and intersection improvements identified throughout the city,” Paul said.
He said that the city fee on new construction was broken down into assessment areas and is linked to the city’s zoning and land use. The plan also had two proposed benefit districts, where the funds could be expended in the city, as well as an ordinance that provides provisions for cross spending between the districts.
“They all have a uniform schedule for each assessment area,” Paul said.
The presentation included fees for the South Cape Core, which were different fees for the South Cape, Central Cape, and North Cape mobility fee schedule.
For attainable housing in the South Cape Coral for a home valued at $350,000 or less would have a mobility fee of $2,774 per dwelling in year one. A single-family detached home would range from $4,228 in 2026 to $6,420 in 2029.
For the other three areas it would be $3,197 for attainable housing in 2026 and $4,024 by year 2029. For a single-family detached home it would go from $5,120 per dwelling in 2026 to $9,989 in year 2029 per dwelling.
The mobility fee would have replaced the city’s road impact fee, which was last updated in 2006.
Many individuals from the community spoke in opposition to the fee structure proposed, but not the concept of a mobility fee itself.
Phillip Ford with Lee Building Industry Association said the perpetual increase of fees and codes are driving the working man and woman out of Cape Coral and Florida.
“We see what the policies are continuing to make worse,” he said. “It’s not just about $1,600 a year. It is more than that. For every $1,000 increase, we have about 116,000 people that can’t afford a home nationwide. We can’t continue to go down this road of building a layer of fees and regulations. The working man and woman cannot afford to live.”
Council members shared that it was a tough decision to make.
Councilmember Bill Steinke said the cost of everything has risen in the past 19 years and the cost of the infrastructure and improvements to accommodate those 27,000 new homes in the last five years has a price.
For context, Steinke said the median cost of a new construction home in Cape Coral went from $227,730 in 2015 to $236,223 in 2020.
“That represents a 3.7% increase over five years,” he said. “From 2020 to 2025 that $236,223 went to $339,000. That is a 69% increase in just the cost of the home.”
Steinke said the shift was caused in the cost of material.
“That $1,600, $1,700 that would go into effect year one would take $399,000 home and move it to $400,662. That is an increase of .4% in the cost of the home,” he said.
If there was not a markup, in 2029 that price would go from $399,000 to $405,649, a 1.7% increase.
“While I am certainly not in favor of increasing the cost of housing, I am interested in infrastructure necessary that our city is demanding and having a portion of the dollars available to provide that infrastructure,” Steinke said.
Gunter shared some data on assessed values from 2015 to present to identify the growth each year for new construction alone. From 2015 to 2021, that growth was about 8.5%. In 2022 the growth sat at 10.88%, 23.55% in 2023 and 15.63% in 2024.
He also shared data on the closings that took place over the last five years for residential. In 2019 there were 6,174 closings, 6,995 closings in 2020, 7,991 closings in 2021, 6,456 closings in 2022, 5,681 closings in 2023 and 5,667 closings in 2024.
“We are declining each and every year with our closings,” Gunter said.
He said the population will continue to come to the city.
“We have needs today. Even if not one more person comes to the city, there are identified needs that we have,” Gunter said.
He said rather than putting it on the next 180,000 people that come to the city, he thinks it should be a shared responsibility for the 220,000 people already here.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com