Who’s Going To Pay For Growth?

The Cape Coral City Council is struggling with that question as they debate, disagree, and take repeated votes that fail on whether to put the burden for growth mainly on developers or residents who’ve already paid. 

As Cape Coral continues to grow, the City Council needs to decide how they’re going to pay for the infrastructure (roadways, sidewalks, traffic lights, etc) to accommodate that growth. 

City staff has put together a long-term $2 billion wish-list of projects that would be paid for by new mobility fees. There are two issues the City Council is dealing with that has the 8 members nearly split on what to do. The first is that the City has not raised impact fees one penny in nearly 20 years resulting in the need for a tremendous amount of funding. The second is a new state law that goes into effect in 10 days, putting a cap on the amount of money a municipality can raise fees (a total of 50% over 4 years)  unless there are “extraordinary circumstances.” If the City attorney determines there are “extraordinary circumstances” 6 out of 8 council members must vote in favor of the higher fees. 

Representatives from the Real Estate and building industries have been lobbying council members to keep any increases relatively low and the Chamber of Commerce has asked the City Council to only raise the fees by 12.5% per year for both residential and commercial.

While the current impact fee charges are all over the board, whether you’re looking at residential or commercial, and depending on which chart City staff has presented to the City Council, it appears the current residential impact fee charge is approximately $3,347. The City wants to get that number closer to $10,000. That’s the amount Lee County charges as of 7 years ago. If Cape Coral increases their current fee by only 12.5% next year, it only jumps to $3,765 and would hardly put a dent in the $2 billion worth of projects on the table.

Another dilemma the City faces is that if they raise the fees too much, some believe developers and business owners may balk on building and decide to take their business to Fort Myers or elsewhere where the infrastructure is ready to roll. Cape Coral is in desperate need of additional commercial business. For example, office space is at 98% capacity as of today throughout the City. 

These 8 members have to decide, and decide quickly, who’s going to pay, because time is running out. Their last chance to enact new mobility fees is Thursday, September 25th when they hold a special meeting on this topic where the hope is to pass something before October 1st. 

We will be at the meeting to cover it live.