Here we go again. Nassau County’s latest Impact and Mobility Fee Study is out — and if you thought building a home here was already expensive, buckle up.
According to the proposed update, the County is tripling the mobility fee for a single-family home — jumping from about $4,000 to over $11,000 per lot. That’s not a typo. Eleven thousand dollars for the “privilege” of pulling a permit on your own land.
What’s a Mobility Fee Anyway?
Mobility fees are supposed to fund transportation improvements — new roads, widened lanes, turn signals, sidewalks, and the like — so that growth “pays for itself.”
In theory, that makes sense.
In practice, it’s often a government ATM that grows faster than the population.
But wait. We are not done yet. Let us not forget the proposed impact fee increases too. These impact fee increases range from a 55% increase to a 159% increase.
What’s an Impact Fee?
Impact fees are the way new development pays for its impact on government services and infrastructure. For example, the impact from new development on police, fire, schools, etc.
Is new development increasing its impact by over 100%? No. It’s just government spending more to provide the same service.
The Real Cost to Homeowners
Now here’s the part that will make you gasp.
If all impact and mobility fees go as advertised, the base impact and mobility fees for a 2,000-square-foot house in Nassau County will total $26,997.89.
That’s just impact fees — not the building permit review fee or water/sewer tap fees. Once those are added, the total will exceed $37,000 for a modest 2,000-square-foot home before you ever step inside the home.
And if you think being inside the City of Fernandina Beach gets you off the hook — think again. City residents will still pay the $11,332.29 Mobility Fee, plus the County’s Park and Recreation Land and Facilities Impact Fee and an Administrative Impact Fee.
For that same 2,000-square-foot home in the City of Fernandina Beach, the total ADDED Impact and Mobility Fees will be $18,840.29 — before the City piles on its own impact and building permit fees. Question: Why are City residents paying a Park and Recreation Fee to the County when they are also paying one to the City?
Who Pays?
Developers might pay upfront, but make no mistake — buyers and renters will foot the bill in the end.
Higher mobility fees mean higher housing costs, and in a market already struggling with affordability, this move could price out local residents entirely.
Commercial Growth Also Gets Clobbered
And it’s not just homeowners who’ll feel the pinch.
Commercial growth — the very thing government is supposed to encourage — gets blasted, too.
Take a typical Zaxby’s restaurant, roughly 3,800 square feet. Under the proposed schedule, the Mobility Fee alone would be around…
$475,000
That’s before adding in building permits, fire, police, administrative, and other impact fees. Imagine how much it will cost for a chicken wing at Zaxby’s!
In short — building anything in Nassau County is becoming an expensive game only big corporations can play. For anyone wanting to purchase a home or open a local business — you are being priced right out of the American Dream!
The Big Question
Why such a drastic increase now?
And why are we accepting cost estimates that defy common sense? Could this study have been the result of a RFQ as we mentioned in our latest article with CFO Blaise Ingoglia? Read that to get caught up on how city government works and studies like this are written.
Florida’s CFO speaks: RFQs Are Costing Taxpayers Millions
Our team at NassauFLDOGE.com is digging into the County’s 2025 Mobility Fee Study to uncover what’s really behind these inflated calculations.
You can read the proposed report for yourself here: Mobility Study
We encourage everyone — especially builders, property owners, realtors and those saving to purchase their first homes — to take a hard look at these numbers and speak up before this proposal becomes policy.
Because once these new fees hit, the damage will be done and there is no turning back.
And the saddest part? The American dream of owning a home will move even farther out of reach for Nassau County families.
