City Council agrees to cap plan-reviewing fees

The Spokane Valley City Council made a business-friendly move at its meeting Tuesday night.

The council unanimously agreed to put a cap on the amount developers have to pay the city to have their plans for new buildings reviewed.

Previously, developers had to pay a percentage of the total value of the project to the city. That percentage varied depending on different factors. Someone developing a $35 million building, for example, would have had to pay a plan-review fee of almost $113,000.

Now, the city can’t charge more than $35,000 for that service.

“There are some numbers that are a little scary that we could charge,” Councilman Richard Munson said before the resolution passed.

(For the sake of perspective, recent projects worth about $35 million include the purchase and renovation of the Davenport Hotel in Spokane and the Circling Raven golf course and club house in Worley, Idaho.)

The new resolution has a provision that allows the city to collect more than $35,000 if a project is so complicated that it truly ends up costing more than that to review plans.

Deputy Mayor Diana Wilhite said breaks like this could help entice businesses to locate in the city. She noted Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s decision last week to locate a 1,000-job call center in Springfield, Ore., instead of in Spokane Valley because of a tax incentive it received.

“We lost a very fine company that went to Oregon because the state of Oregon was able to give them a half a million dollar break,” Wilhite said.

Councilman Dick Denenny said Washington state needs to do more to attract companies.

“Whatever we can do in this area is a plus, but obviously it falls short of what many other states can do,” he said.