{"id":11783,"date":"2025-10-20T04:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T04:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/11783\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T04:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T04:04:13","slug":"cape-coral-drops-mobility-fee-increase-following-lobbying-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/11783\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Coral Drops Mobility Fee Increase Following Lobbying | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cape Coral planned to raise impact, or \u201cmobility,\u201d fees on developers for the first time in 19 years to help cover infrastructure costs and maintain city services. But the proposal was dropped after building industry and business leaders lobbied City Council, arguing the increase would hurt new construction, the city\u2019s main economic driver.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been lobbied tremendously, personally,\u201d council member Bill Steinke said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steinke, who works for builder Aubuchon Homes and is a former president of the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association, was one of four council members who voted Sept. 3 in favor of raising the fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council was split 4-4 on whether to push forward with the updated fee schedule that imposes one-time costs on all new construction, including residential homes, gas stations, offices, churches, schools, restaurants and hotels.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fees were honed after months of planning and public workshops.<\/a> They would have been phased in from 2026 to 2029, replacing the city\u2019s outdated road impact fees system and raising them by double digit percentages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a regressive, discriminatory tax, nothing more,\u201d said Richard Durling, of Marvin Homes, who argued the fees discriminate against builders.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Business groups also argued the fees would be passed on to homebuyers at a time when salaries are not keeping up with the cost of construction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe working man and woman cannot afford to live [in Southwest Florida] anymore,\u201d said Phillip Ford, director of the Lee Building Industry Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just fee after fee after fee on the real estate industry and building industry,\u201d said Kevin Besserer, director of public policy for Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association, adding that teachers can\u2019t afford to purchase a home on their average salary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steinke argued the new fees would have a much smaller impact on homebuyers than Besserer and Ford suggested. That\u2019s because even though the proposed increase is a high percentage of current fees, it\u2019s a small percentage of what a homebuyer would pay for a home \u2014 adding 1.7% to that cost by 2029 even if prices stayed the same as they are now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cape Coral City Council member Bill Steinke speaks during the Sept. 3 meeting, where Council split 4-4 on raising impact, or \u201cmobility,\u201d fees on developers. Steinke voted in favor of the increase.<\/p>\n

Cape Coral government<\/p>\n

He suggested that the city needs to raise prices for the cost of infrastructure just as builders raise costs when prices for raw materials go up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one came to the podium and said, \u2018builders, you can\u2019t charge that much for a home,\u2019\u201d Steinke said. \u201c\u2026 If that mobility fee is put in place, the actual affordability of a home does not go up by multiple digit percentages.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council member Keith Long took issue with builders complaining that \u201cworking men and women\u201d can\u2019t afford homes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not here to advocate for the working class,\u201d Long said. \u201cThey\u2019re here to advocate for their pocketbooks. I\u2019m not going to sit here and be scapegoated by these individuals who played a significant role in these issues that we face.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steinke and Long, along with council members Joe Kilraine and Derrick Donnell voted for the increase, which would have provided an estimated $500 million of $2 billion that planners estimate the city needs for current and future projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several speakers said they would support a smaller increase, asking Council to consider an alternative plan: a fee increase of 12.5% per year instead of more than twice that amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council members Rachel Kaduk, Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, Laurie Lehmann and Mayor John Gunter voted against the larger increase but also indicated that they are willing to consider the smaller 12.5% per year increase in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sept. 3 vote was unusual because legally Cape Coral had a limited window of opportunity to raise fees by the larger amount that the city\u2019s planners said was needed under \u201cextraordinary circumstances.\u201d A study by urban planning firm Nue Urban Concepts mapped out transportation planning in the Cape over more than 20 years as the city expands toward full buildout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a wish list,\u201d said Bill Corbett, the Cape\u2019s assistant public works director and chief engineer, at a workshop in July. \u201cIt\u2019s a needs-based plan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Cape may have lost the chance to consider the larger increase. Under state rules, they needed at least two-thirds of Council to vote yes on the larger increase by or before Oct. 1 to make it happen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After that, rules require all eight of them to vote yes for a larger increase, Gunter explained. But Council can still raise the \u201cmobility\u201d fees anytime under normal voting rules by up to 12.5% per year for up to four years at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, at this point, I haven\u2019t seen or outlined exactly what those extraordinary circumstances are for me to move forward above the 12.5%,\u201d Gunter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral planned to raise impact, or \u201cmobility,\u201d fees on developers for the first time in 19 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,832,10912,10913,10911],"class_list":["post-11783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city-council","tag-construction-industry","tag-infrastructure-costs","tag-mobility-fees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}