5/9/07, Impact Fees, Can growth pay for growth?

The sketch above is of a "roundabout". They will be installed in No. Redmond in place of stop lights or 4-way stops.

Last night, the Redmond council had a joint meeting with the Sammamish council to discuss, in part, transportation funding. Though, some of the discussion points were hard to pick up on "webstreaming" TV, I 'll do my best.

For me, a take home message was that Sammamish is capturing 97% of the transportation costs of their growth projects with "impact fees" on developers. On the other hand, Redmond is capturing only 67% of our transportation costs of our growth projects with impact fees. Thus, one conjectures that 33% of the cost for developing the road infrastructure in Redmond's of new developments is distributed to the citizens. IS GROWTH TRULY PAYING FOR GROWTH? Council will look at this closer in a future study session (especially with attention to having to borrow to improve 116th St).

The mayor's rational for this larger burden on the citizens (and less burden on developers) was: 1) we want to get a good start launching this new city-wide impact fee structure with gradual updates and 2) the pending 2008 Overlake Plan will be a good first update point. Citizens will need to stay on top of the city to see these updates take place.

Projected transportation costs have gone up significantly in the last 3 years. In 2004 costs were $251,000,000. Costs have escalated to $345,000.000 in 2007. Of the 2007 costs: $204M are non-impact fees (borrowing and capital funds?) and $141M are funded from the new impact fees.

Council and Administration figured $141,000,000 in impact fees are needed to pay to balance the budget and for needed improvements, including:

NE 70th Street (by Whole Foods & the trailer park),
the NE 124th & Red-Wood Road intersection, and
the NE 124th & 162nd Place NE intersection.

Council was vague about long-needed NE 116th improvements and various "roundabouts" (see photo) planned for North Redmond. Several months ago, staff recommended borrowing to pay for this work. Council meets for another study session in the near future and hopefully will give clearer directions for fund sourcing.

Council very quickly reviewed the total impact fee of $12,550 a developer would pay for the average lot. The combined impact fees for schools, parks, fire, and transportation are ~ $12,550/lot, based on the proposed fees, below:

$2750 - school impact
$2500 - parks & rec. impact
$6900- transportation impact
$ 300- fire impact

Several councilmembers were thoughtful and considerate of the analysis & hard work the planning commission contributed to the deliberative process. Mr. Cole follwed by Mr. Marchione were most supportive and Mr. Robinson and others made note of commissioner's input. As I recollect, Mr Resha - Capital Program (CIP) lead and a transportation consultant -- was relatively quiet throughout the conversation.

The Principal Planners did the best job they could explaining the commissioner's point of view but it would have been faster, more effective and useful to have a commissioner present to voice their 3-1 majority FOR fees.

BACKGROUND: In 1996, seven Districts were structured to implement impact fees. 4 were commercial districts - all with the same fee. 3 were residential districts with Grasslawn and ViewPoint neighborhoods the lowest fees.

TODAY, staff is proposing one city-wide impact fee for all neighborhoods and commercial areas. All houses pay the same fee. One district is common in cities with 3-4 mile trip lengths, such as in Redmond.