Tampa’s transportation multi-modal impact fees are finally getting their first update since 1989—a 36-year gap that has cost the city nearly $140 million in subsidized development. Currently for a 2,000 square foot home that fee is $955. The new fee, when fully implemented will be $5,284. To appease the developer community council has agreed to delay the implementation of the new fee an additional 90 days beyond what state statute requires. If adopted Thursday at the second reading, the fees will phase in over 4 years starting June 1, 2026 at 25% of the new fee.
## The Current State
In Tampa, the average transportation impact fee is currently $1,772. Adjusted for inflation in 2025 dollars that should be $4,694. For context: Hillsborough County updated their fee in 2022 for a single-family home in the urban core to $9,183. The City of Orlando’s fee for a single family home averages $5,000. Manatee County updated their fees September 9, 2025 to $19,768 for a single-family home.
In FY24 citywide $3,732,394 in impact fees were collected. Adjusted for today’s dollar it should have been over $9 million.
## What Are Impact Fees?
Impact fees are one-time charges paid by developers when building new residential or commercial projects. The fees are intended to fund infrastructure necessitated by new growth and ensure current residents do not shoulder the costs of roads, transit, and other improvements needed because of new development.
Impact fees can only be used in the part of the city where the development occurs and cannot be used for general maintenance or to fix existing issues. When a developer builds a new home or building, they pay the impact fee based on the type and size of the structure. For transportation multi-modal impact fees, the calculation is based on how many vehicle trips that new development will generate.
One of the components used to determine the fee, the ITE Trip Generation Manual, is currently on the 12th edition. When Tampa’s fee was set in 1989, they were using the 3rd edition. It’s clear and obvious the fee needs to be adjusted.
## What Can Be Built With Impact Fees?
The updated presentation includes these eligible improvements:
1. New roadways and widening of roads to add new through lanes
2. New turn lanes or extension of existing turn lanes
3. New bridges or grade separations, either for vehicles or pedestrians/bicyclists
4. **New, or upgrading of existing, drainage facilities in conjunction with roadway construction**
5. Acquisition of right-of-way for the purpose of constructing transportation system improvements
6. Traffic signals, including new and upgraded signals, and associated software to increase the effective capacity of intersections (capital costs)
7. Curbs, medians and shoulders
8. **Relocating utilities** to accommodate roadway modifications that increase person trip capacity
9. Intersection improvements
10. **New sidewalks** and widening of existing sidewalks to add person capacity, including crossing improvements
11. **On-street bicycle lanes and construction of bicycle/pedestrian trails**
12. Wayfinding to support vehicle travel, access to transit, walking and biking
13. **Capital transit facilities** such as shelters and pullout bays
14. Park and ride lots
## The Long Road to Getting Here
The current effort dates back to at least 2022. At that point, there was also discussion of adding a “public safety” impact fee to help with the cost of building new police and fire stations. That discussion died after the mayor made clear through staff discussions she wasn’t inclined to implement a new fee. And while the existence of a preliminary study on the transportation fee from August 2023 indicates it was being explored, in August of 2023 the mayor was pushing for a millage rate increase instead. When that failed, the focus of the public and council shifted back to other revenue opportunities.
In November of 2023 Council member Hurtak motioned for staff to report back on what the next steps were for updating the transportation fees. Staff requested a continuance. That discussion didn’t happen. Instead, a new motion was made to “move forward with the Mobility/Multi-Modal Impact Fee Study move forward to initiate the increase and impact fees; further, that Staff be requested to provide an update on the progress of the study on May 2, 2024.” For the May 2 agenda, staff again requested a continuance. The item didn’t appear back on the agenda until 8/29/24 when once again a continuance was requested until January 2025.
Finally in January of 2025 a memo was sent to council outlining a work order would be coming before council in February to start an 18 month process of updating the fees. The firm that did the initial study has been under contract with Mobility since 2022. There was a 17 month gap between when the initial study was completed in August of 2023 and the work order in February of 2025. The follow up study that currently is underway was not procured through a competitive contract. There was no Request for Proposal/Qualifications or scoring involved. A work order was issued to the same consultant that prepared the August 2023 fee framework study.
When the Tampa Monitor reached out to Mobility staff for an explanation, a multitude of explanations were provided from staff turnover in 2023 to the 2024 hurricanes. Additionally staff noted “regulatory compliance.”
## State Law Complications
Somehow a study council and the public were told was going to take 18 months to complete when approved in February is now being fast tracked to try and get under the wire.
In 2021, the state passed a law that prevents local governments from raising impact fees more than 50% in a 4 year period—split into 4 equal installments—unless you can demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances.” During the 2023 study there were attempts in the state legislature to curb local municipalities from increasing their fees. That was in addition to the law passed in 2021 that already limited cities and counties from raising fees more than 50% over a 4 year period unless they could demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances.” An attempt to modify the law in 2023 failed, however in 2025 a new law was passed that eliminated the “extraordinary circumstances” clause. That goes into effect January 1, 2026.
The extraordinary circumstances determination allows the rate to be raised more than 50%. Council held 2 public workshops on the issue and determined there were multiple reasons to justify extraordinary circumstances.
## The Manatee County Example
But it gets more complicated. Manatee County originally went the route of the 12.5% annual increase last summer, increasing their impact fees the 50% over 4 years as allowed by state law without using the “extraordinary circumstances” clause. The voters were unhappy and voted the majority of that commission out last fall at which point the new commissioners revisited the impact fees ultimately leading to the current rates that are between 69% to 169% of previous fees. That led to a lawsuit filed by local developers. Which has now led to the DeSantis administration getting involved and sending a letter in August to Manatee County “warning them not to go forward with their plan to raise impact fees.” The grounds? SB 180. Including threats of withholding state funding.
There is a class action suit filed on behalf of at least 20 cities and counties fighting SB 180. At the core it’s a fight over home rule and whether land use decisions are going to be made at the local level or in Tallahassee. Thus far City Attorney Andrea Zelman has shown little interest in pushing back against the state or federal government.
## The Reality
The new rate study calculated that the fee for a 2,000 square foot single-family home should be $5,284, compared to the current fee of $955. Council has decided to go the route of demonstrating extraordinary circumstances, which required public workshops including with the planning commission, and two hearings for adoption. The alternative would have been to only raise the fee 50% (12.5% per year over 4 years), which would have brought the fee to just $1,433 after four years—still far below the calculated need of $5,284.
State law requires 90 day notice before any fee increase can be implemented, and it must be phased in over 4 years. The adopted increase will start at 25% of the new fee on June 1, 2026, then increase by 25% each subsequent year. Any changes will have minimal impact on the FY26 and FY27 budgets.
And all of this is important to understand because it’s not as simple as saying, “raise the fees to the current cost estimates” and magically 10s of millions of dollars are rolling in that can be used to fund whatever. That’s what a millage increase is for and council voted that idea down when the mayor presented it 2 years ago.
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