| Off -site capital inmprovements are paid by builders as "impact fees" |
Earlier this year, council extended the time builders have to pay their impact fees. Payment was extended from the time of permitting to the completion of sheet rock installation. The extension was is for 5-years. Mr. Hoffman asked council to defer impact fees even longer, to "time of closing." President Richard Cole was the only councilmember against this proposal.
Hoffman suggested the city cover their risk of deferment with liens. Council, led by Pat Vache' decided further risk analysis was needed. Councilmember Allen suggested bonds. Allen recommended LWSD not be subject to deferment at closing Myers believed there was no risk with liens, even for schools.
In the end, council passed Ordinance 2629 extending deferment to sheet rock (7-0) and encouraged an amendment to defer impact fees payments to "time of closing." after further study by staff.
Reported by Bob Yoder
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Comment: It's possible builder deferment of impact fees will expedite completion of sidewalk construction (and improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.) For example, NE 116th has a series of broken sidewalk connections owing to city waivers and high costs of infrastructure. B.Y.
I recall that in the late-70s, early-80s, interest rates rose to nearly 20% and nobody could afford to buy a house. Entire housing developments that had been built were moth-balled for 6 or 7 years because there were no buyers. (Example: Forest Rim in Issaquah) From 1978-1983, inflation caused prices of most commodities to double and triple. The price of a pound of hamburger went from $.69 to $1.49 in less than a year.
ReplyDeleteIf builders are allowed to postpone their impact fees for many years, will the impact fees be indexed to inflation? The price of building roads, sidewalks, sewers, parks and schools will continue to increase, while the impact fee will be set when the builder first applies for the permit. The school impact fee for a single family residence today is about $3,000. If a building permit is issued today, and the house isn’t completed and sold until 9 years from now when school impact fees have increased to, say, $15,000 per house, will the builder be required to pay $3,000 or $15,000? Allowing builders to pay impact fees when the house finally sells sounds like a bad deal for everyone, except the builders.