Number has major 'impact' on fee debate

By JOHN STANG / Daily Inter Lake

Welcome to the search for the secrets of the number 142,031.

Those secrets are stashed somewhere in Helena.

Once found, a feud over proposed road impact fees in Kalispell might take one step toward resolution.

The number 142,031 is how many extra vehicle trips per day Kalispell might expect in 2020, according to a study by Kalispell's consultant - Randy Goff of Portland.

This is a key factor in calculating Kalispell's proposed road impact fees, but the commercial development community argues Goff's number is unfairly high.

Spring Prairie Center developer Mark Goldberg said Wednesday that 142,031 "is the key salient point on how much money we pay."

"It is the heart of the issue," City Public Works Director Jim Hansz said at the same Wednesday meeting of Kalispell's impact fee advisory committee.

An impact fee is a one-time charge on a new home or commercial building that is built in or annexed into Kalispell. Its purpose is to help the city pay the extra capital costs of serving that structure.

Kalispell already has police, fire, water, sewer and drainage impact fees.

The proposed road impact fees have become controversial because new buildings would be assessed fees depending upon the amount of traffic they are expected to create. The impact fee on a new single-family home, which has minimal impact, would be $729. But business projects likely to create lots of traffic - such as Glacier Town Center and its 577,000-square-foot shopping center - can expect to pay larger amounts.

When Goff mapped out his study on traffic predictions and proposed impact fees, he collected traffic information from the Montana Department of Transportation, Kalispell's long-range transportation plan, and standard nationwide impact fee formulas.

The Montana Department of Transportation gave Goff some raw traffic information that was extrapolated into the 142,031 vehicle-trips-per-day number, but the development community and some advisory committee members want information on how the figure was reached.

The problem is that the state Transportation Department would not release some of the background data for the numbers given to Goff - creating a gap in everyone's knowledge of how 142,031 was reached.

Developers, advisory committee members and city staffers all believe the missing data is public information that the state should release.

On Wednesday, the parties agreed to send representatives to meet with the state Transportation Department in Helena to try to obtain the missing traffic information.

Those representatives will include Charles Strum, a Billings traffic engineer working for Goldberg, and Jeff Key of the Helena office of Robert Peccia & Associates, which does a significant amount of traffic engineering for the city of Kalispell.

Also Wednesday, Interim City Manager Myrt Webb told the advisory committee that he has talked individually with City Council members, and they want to speed up progress on the road impact fees.

These proposed fees have been debated and studied for about two years.

Webb proposed that the advisory committee concentrate for now on Goff's study - getting it to the council for its approval. If the council approves that study, the advisory committee then can focus on other parts of the road impact fees proposal.

Webb and the advisory committee also tentatively sorted out some City Council questions on the road fees to be split among the committee, the city staff and the council itself. The council would be in charge of the political and legal aspects of the proposed fees.

Webb plans to discuss the road impact fees Monday at a council workshop.

Major developers and the city staff believe that litigation is likely if the council passes the current proposed package because commercial interests don't like it. The city staff and some developers have opposing views on whether the road impact fee process is legal.

Goldberg, along with Phil Harris, developer of Hutton Ranch Plaza, and Wolford Development, developer of the proposed Glacier Town Center, have led other local commercial and construction interests in opposing the current proposal.

Those three developers are planning a majority of Kalispell's commercial construction in the near future.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com