By Kevin Hogencamp, Contributing Writer
Gavin Rollins says some Clay County commissioners have a pessimistic view about the steadily growing community’s direction.
But he’s not one of them, by any means.
The first-term District 4 commissioner says he’s even keen on an imaginative-yet-complex proposal to pay for some of the transportation improvements that are being necessitated by progress.
Gavin, of Keystone Heights, says he was staunchly opposed to any impact fee on new construction until developer Jerry Agresti pitched the idea in January of having new homeowners pay a transportation assessment over 20 years –– or upfront, if they choose.
“I’m not in favor of implementing a transportation impact fee unless it’s through a creative measure,” Gavin told the Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Clay Builders Council in February.
Among the issues in determining how to fill a $254 million gap in road improvement funding is whether to lift a moratorium on a 5,814-per-home county transportation impact fee imposed on homebuilders in 2008.
While Agresti’s proposed Municipal Service Benefit Unit (MSBU) assessment generates funds for the county much slower than a traditional transportation impact fee paid by developers, it is a huge relief for builders and can be used to pay for bond-financed projects because it is recurring revenue.
Either way, the cost of financing road improvements are ultimately shifted from the general taxpayer to new homeowners –– the transportation projects’ primary beneficiaries.
Clay County officials are fine-tuning the MSBU plan pitched by Agresti, the Developers Realty Group president who also serves as the Clay County Economic Development Corporation chair.
“It’s a fairly complex plan, but basically makes it easier for the home to be sold,” Rollins told the builders. “It works the financing of the transportation impact into the cost of the home long-term … so that you guys don’t have that big hit.”
A 2015 North Florida Transportation Organization study gave commissioners a blueprint for new taxes and fees that could be collected to fund road projects. In February, all five county commissioners agreed to have county officials fully explore Agresti’s plan and to ask voters to extend the 1-cent sales tax for capital projects, which Rollins also touted to the builders.
Some Clay developers have agreed to publicly advocate for the sales tax extension, which is slated to be on the November general election ballot.
“No one likes taxes, but I think people understand that the 1-cent sales tax … is not a new tax and that we have a track record of spending it on what we said it was going to be spent on,” Rollins said.
The county government is doing a better job than ever of providing updates on its website about how sales tax revenue is being spent and has correspondingly taken subjectivity out of transportation funding decisions, he said.
Clay County’s list of upcoming paving and resurfacing projects is established based on impartial criteria such as the number of people who use road, the number of residents and businesses along the road, and whether it is a major connector.
“In the past, it was more of a political process of arm-twisting and fighting, and the districts were kind of at each other’s throats,” Rollins said. “We wanted to systemize it as much as possible.”
Rollins also updated the builders’ group on various transportation projects, particularly improvements in the burgeoning Oakleaf area. Notably, he said, the Old Jennings Road connector will alleviate some County Road 220 road traffic, and the development firm East West Communities has agreed to share the costs of widening 1.3 miles of Tynes Boulevard.
“A lot of good things are happening in Clay County,” Rollins said. “One of the things I’ve been passionate about is trying to communicate that with the public.”