OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Osceola County and St. Cloud will vote on new impact fees for new construction that will more than double the current amount.
The city said the increased fees will help with current and future infrastructure needs on the roadways in St. Cloud and the county.
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Impact fees are a one-time upfront fee that ensures new development helps support the increased transportation, parks, schools, police and fire protection, and emergency medical services that will be needed by that development.
Osceola County worked with HNTB Corporation, Inc. to prepare a Joint Mobility Fee Renewal Study and Demonstrated-Need Study dated May 2024 to update the City of St. Cloud’s and the County’s Mobility Fee schedule utilizing the most up-to-date regional travel demand model.
The county said the Joint Mobility Fee Renewal Study was done due to the need to enhance future multimodal transportation infrastructure in Osceola County and the City of St. Cloud.
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The plan is to have the initiative accommodate anticipated growth, as outlined by the County’s and City’s adopted Comprehensive Plan Transportation Element.
The county said the total Mobility Fee that the City of St. Cloud and Osceola County will need to adequately meet future transportation needs, will be $8,089,739,049, with $5,560,181,822 going towards the County Road System and $2,529,557,226 going towards the City Street System.
It correlates to $222.4M annually for Osceola County and $101.2M annually for the City of St. Cloud for the next 25 years.
“In the last two years alone construction costs have gone up over 40 percent, that’s another reason that we’re looking to increase the fees is to we got to keep up with construction prices,” Dave Tomek, the Assistant City Manager for the city of St. Cloud.
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The current rate for impact and mobility fees in St. Cloud for a single-family home is $6,442. The scheduled increase proposed would be $20,866.64.
For Osceola County, impact fees currently sitting at $9,999.00. The proposed increase has proposed would be $25,012.42.
Every time there is an increase in any kind of fee, the market has to adjust. Whether that’s a short-term or longer adjustment we’ll be seeing,” said Tomek.
Residents in St. Cloud said the city and county are playing catch-up in road infrastructure needs after developers have quickly built.
“You’ll see they’re making roads bigger, part in sediment. They are expanding the roads. Neptune Road, I said, four lanes. It’s just too late,” said Angel Sadlaberrious, a St. Cloud Resident.
Sadlaberrious said in the last decade, time driving across the county has doubled because of the increase in people that moved to the area.
“St. Cloud used to be a farm, horse’s cows, and all that stuff around, but now all you see is new developments and new communities. When it takes you 45 minutes to go 10 miles, I think we have a traffic issue,” said Sadlaberrious.
The county said they will have two workshops before the issue is taken to the board. They are working to get feedback from the public during the workshops.
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