Project Could Make Or Break City’s Impact Fee

A conflict over a new housing project may determine whether the city can charge developers impact fees to pay for road improvements in the Indian Trail neighborhood.

Developer Rod Plese is appealing a ruling by the city planning department to charge a $721 per-home fee on the seventh addition of his Woodridge subdivision, set for construction on a slope north of Howesdale Drive.

The project will one day have 124 homes and, if the city has its way, will generate more than $89,000 in fees for road improvements.

But Plese and his attorney, James Craven, are challenging the impact fee on many fronts: technical, legal and philosophical.

The city argues that if Plese doesn’t pay, as well as improve sewer lines, the project cannot go forward without a full environmental analysis.

The project is the first to go to public hearing after city council approval of the Indian Trail Specific Plan, which establishes zoning and growth policies for the area in northwest Spokane. The plan, approved Dec. 11, took three years to draft and the document states that developers may be charged for their share of transportation improvements.

Even before the Indian Trail plan, however, the city in September of 1994 approved an ordinance enabling it to collect fees from developers for direct impacts or deny project approval.

But the detailed work required to come up with an impact fee ordinance and allocate costs to new plats is still pending with a city committee.

A draft indicates the city would like to assess Indian Trail developers fees totaling $1,894 per single-family home for roads, parks and fire protection. Other fast-growth areas of the city and commercial and multi-family projects would have a different fee schedule.

Still, Craven said the $721 amount asked of Plese today is “arbitrary and picked out of the air.”

“They have not yet arrived at the formula to know how to do it to the satisfaction of many people in Spokane,” Craven said of the proposal now being studied.

Additionally, Craven also argued the Woodridge addition was submitted to the city on June 28, 1994, before either the impact fee policy or the neighborhood plan was approved. That means the plat is “legally vested” and should be subjected to the law and policies in place on that date.

Indian Trail is set to be widened from Kathleen to Ridgecrest at a cost of $3 million. Eventually, the city hopes to have a wider road with turn lanes from Francis Avenue to Lowell Road.

Developer money is only a portion of the revenue available for the work, with the majority coming from state grants, the gasoline tax, and local property levies.

Plese, a Shadle Park High School graduate, said that’s exactly why he doesn’t want to pay impact fees: because they aren’t equitable.

Plese said Indian Trail residents such as himself have paid into tax coffers for years, yet the money has been detoured for other projects around the city.

“It’s an unfair taxation to just make the new home buyers pay,” he said. “What about me? I’ve lived there for 25 years and I’ve never had to pay a dollar of my money for the improvement of that road.”

“Why are we putting it on new homebuyers?” he asked. “Why should they be the only ones? I’ve never agreed with that. I have opposed impact fees on every development.”

Planner Ken Pelton said there is ample evidence that new projects in Indian Trail are adding congestion to Indian Trail Road and creating the need for a new east-west arterial. Plese’s project alone would increase peak-hour traffic on the road by 7 percent.

“You can only do so many traffic studies,” said Pelton. “I’m not sure we’d ever get a more detailed number than that.”

The decision on the city’s impact fee requests is in the hands of hearing examiner Greg Smith. His decision would likely be appealed to the city council.

Though many developers are watching closely to see what happens, at least one is willing to pay.

Leif Sorenson, who has approval for the 318-unit McCarroll East project at Strong Road and Indian Trail, said he intends to abide by his deal for impact fees, which will cost almost $300,000.

“I accept it,” he said. “It’s one of the things that seems somewhat feasible. It’s a problem all over the country - there’s always money shortages for infrastructure and development.”

, DataTimes