The proposed ordinance would replace traditional traffic concurrency with a mobility fee system that would be be more fair, effective and efficient that the existing system, and would take account of alternative modes of travel, consistent with the Council's direction in the recently-adopted Strategic Plan. After receiving a grant from the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the Town commissioned an "Alternative to Concurrency" study, and this proposed ordinance is the result of its recommendations. Replacement of traditional transportation concurrency with more innovative solutions was specifically allowed by growth management legislation passed by the Florida Legislature in 2011.

The potential mobility fee system is best understood in contrast to the current concurrency system. The current system only addresses the capacity of roadways to handle automobiles, and does not consider other modes of transportation. Only considering driving has meant that infrastructure for other modes is neglected, and on its own - along with land use decisions - has created an environment unfriendly to other modes of transportation (i.e. very few will want to walk, bike or take transit when most places to go are far separated, with architecture that assumes everyone will drive, and crossing the street requires crossing six, eight, ten or 12 lanes of fast-moving traffic with insufficient or nonexistent crosswalks/pedestrian signals). As that approach leads to more and more automobile capacity, and makes other modes more unfeasible, vehicle miles traveled continues to increase - a phenomenon called "induced demand" - and within metropolitan areas consistently outstrips the ability to auto infrastructure to accommodate it at an acceptable level of service, aside from its ill effects on aesthetics, quality of life and the mobility of those unable to own/operate a car due to age, disability and/or cost. The mobility fee system, as recommended in the aforementioned study, would consider and fund all modes of transportation including, but not exclusively to, roads.

The mobility fee system will also be more fair, efficient and predictable for developers than the current system. Under traditional concurrency, a developer would pay several thousand dollars for a traffic study, and several thousand more for the Town's consultant to review it, in a time-consuming, expensive and often contentious process. Additionally, small projects are exempted, and two identical projects in different parts of Town could find themselves anywhere from having no mitigation obligation to having hundreds of thousands of dollars in mitigation cost, depending on which roads are impacted and how much capacity remains on them. The proposed ordinance would replace that system by simply assessing a mobility fee based on the number of daily trips (a simple reference by types and amounts of proposed uses), with the option to reduce the fee through actions that will mitigate transportation impact, such as design improvements and, for commercial development, off-peak commuting times and encouragement of alternative means of transportation. Recognizing that small projects also have an impact, and that all trips add demand to the system overall, the mobility fee system is more fundamentally fair. The system would also respect vested transportation concurrency rights.

The proposed mobility fee system would be simple and fast by being a straightforward calculation, help to fund alternative modes of transportation as well as auto travel, thereby supporting the Town's efforts toward complete streets and creating greater mobility, and treat new development and redevelopment more fairly.

The Planning and Zoning Board voted, at its December 8, 2015 meeting, to recommend adoption is the proposed ordinance.