Sarasota County's Mobility Fee Plan Proposal Explained at MPO Meeting

It is a plan based on Complete Street Corridors for future planning. New streets will have five foot sidewalks on both sides of an eight-foot wide multi-use path and have four-foot bicycle lanes on both sides of the path; reducing the needed number of lanes for cars.

Multi-modal corridors reduce the future land miles needed and personal miles of travel rate by offering an alternative to getting into a car for all of one's travel needs.

With Sarasota's multi-modal fee being introduced to the county, the true transportation impact is more accurately calculated. Current transportation impact fees don't recognize trails and a wide arrangement of paths when calculating the cost of roads. Retrofitting congested roads later on with trails and paths becomes costly and in most cases too expensive when considering right-of-way expenses.

With a wide range of product (roads, bicycles, walking paths and trails) many more grants are available to the local governments. More options to the appearance of a road also remains the decision of local governments.

Consistent with changes in the Florida Legislature over the past few years, Sarasota County has been considering alternatives to its concurrency management system, as well as evaluating the development of a mobility plan and mobility fee. If adopted, this plan and fee would replace transportation concurrency, proportionate fair-share and road impact fees.

Sarasota County staff is meeting with staff from the Town of Longboat Key, City of North Port, and the City of Venice regarding the proposed mobility plan and fees.

Next steps for Paul and staff include public outreach with community stakeholders, then a presentation with elected officials, followed by a process to define maps and request authorization to advertise a proposed ordinance.