Today, the Chamber Board of Directors met at the TCC Ghazvini Center for their regular meeting. BAC Chair, Ed Murray presented an update on the ongoing work of the BAC. As part of that update, Ed Murray presented a letter that was recently sent from Chamber Chair-Elect, Reggie Bouthillier on behalf of the BAC and the Board to Ben Pingree, Director of PLACE for Tallahassee/Leon County regarding the Committee’s position on the proposed mobility fee study.
In an effort to keep Chamber members apprised of the continued work of the BAC on behalf of the business community, please see the letter outlining the BAC’s position on the Mobility Fee study.
May 24, 2016
Dear Ben:
Thank you for organizing and leading the meeting last week with the extensive group of City & County management and staff regarding the City and County’s proposal to fund a mobility fee study. The purpose of this letter is to summarize our understanding of the consensus we achieved at the meeting and the agreed plan of action to implement a modified approach to the mobility fee study.
A significant number of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce members will be affected by any change to the existing transportation concurrency system within the City and County, including the newly proposed mobility fee system. Engaging in this modified approach offers a unique opportunity for us to work together to improve and/or create a transportation concurrency system that will be fair and reasonable to the business community while meeting the overall objectives of PLACE, the City and the County for addressing new transportation impacts to the road network associated with future growth.
As we discussed, a stakeholder group will be created consisting of Chamber members who are active business leaders in the real estate industry, land-use lawyers, engineers, planners, and others with experience in working with other communities around the State of Florida on transportation concurrency systems. They will offer informed perspectives on the types of transportation concurrency systems and models that should be considered and evaluated to improve and/or replace the existing system. The creation of this stakeholder group combined with your agreement to conduct the study in two phases will give our members additional comfort in this process.
The first phase will consist of an evaluation by PLACE, the City, the County, the retained consultant, and the Chamber stakeholder group of the existing transportation concurrency systems within the City and the County, and the options for improving and/or replacing these systems. This phase will summarize the existing City and County approaches for constructing, operating, and maintaining the road networks within our community, and the positives and negatives associated with the existing transportation concurrency system, how impacts to that system are evaluated for new growth, and the mitigation that is required for those impacts. As you know, the current system has been criticized for many years and this will present an opportunity for us to take a deeper dive into this system. A report will be produced at the end of this phase summarizing the findings, and providing recommendations for improving and/or replacing the existing transportation concurrency system and methods for evaluating impacts and mitigation for new growth. This report will be provided to the City and County Commissions for further consideration prior to proceeding to the second phase. After further direction from the City and County Commissions, the second phase is anticipated to consist of a detailed study by the selected consultant of the option recommended for improving and/or replacing the existing systems from the phase 1 process above.
Thank you again for allowing us to dialogue on this important issue and for incorporating our concerns into your overall approach. We look forward to creating a new model that can be replicated by other communities around Florida.
Sincerely,
Reggie Bouthiller
Chair-Elect, Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce
