Kalispell to set hearing on impact fees

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

Builders of new Kalispell homes face potential impact fees for fire and police protection - totaling roughly $576 for a new house - if a proposal being considered by city officials is adopted.

Next Monday, Kalispell's City Council will vote on setting a public hearing later this month - likely Nov. 20 - on whether to levy fire and police impact fees on homes and buildings being added to the city through construction or annexation.

An impact fee is a one-time charge against a new house or building to offset the cost of the city having to extend services to the property.

Last month, the council created a new impact fee for stormwater drainage measures and modified existing impact fees for water and sewer services.

The council is also exploring an impact fee to pay for extra parks and recreational services prompted by new homes. Eventually, the council also wants to explore a transportation-related impact fee.

On Monday, an advisory committee and consultant Randall Goff, of Portland-based HDR/EES, briefed the council on the proposed police and fire impact fees.

The new fees that will go to a public hearing are:

. Fire protection - $532.667 for a new house, $421.70 for each new apartment, and $240,02 for each 1,000 square feet of a new commercial building. This fee would mostly pay for construction of new fire stations and buying new fire trucks. The city's analysts project that Kalispell will need to build five new fire stations by 2036.

A fire station would be built only when enough new growth jeopardizes the fire department's ability to answer 90 percent of its calls within five minutes, the proposal said.

. Police protection - $43.45 for a new house, $34.40 for a new apartment and $13.24 for each 1,000 square feet of new commercial building space. These figures are based on the assumption that Kalispell - with a population of roughly 20,000 - will reach 23,000 people by 2010.

If approved, these fees would be added to a new stormwater drainage impact fee of $1,090 for a house with commercial fees depending on the size of the buildings.

Also the council recently changed the water impact fee from $2,749 to $2,155 and the sewer fee from $2,196 to $2,430 for a new house. Commercial water and sewer impact fees depend on the size the new buildings.

If the city council adopts the proposed police and fire impact fees, that means the total impact fees for a new house would have increased from $4,945 last summer to $6,251 - with future parks and transportation impact fees to be added later.

The city government's impact fees advisory committee plans to review the fee structure annually. And the council expects to review those fees every two or three years.