Kalispell council tackles impact fees again
On paper, 111 people voiced support for the current proposed road-impact fees before the Kalispell City Council.
That's the total in various e-mails, petitions and postcards submitted to the council.
Meanwhile, two e-mails to City Hall, plus several letters from banks, developers and business interests, oppose the current impact-fee proposal.
All this is the most-recent paperwork that council members have absorbed this month, leading up to today's 7 p.m. workshop discussion, at which no votes are legally allowed.
At this time, it is difficult to tell how the council leans.
Council Members Bob Hafferman and Tim Kluesner think the proposed fees are too high. Mayor Pam Kennedy appears to lean in that direction.
Meanwhile, Council Member Jim Atkinson supports the fee system as proposed by the city staff.
Council Members Randy Kenyon, Wayne Saverud, Hank Olson, Duane Larson and Kari Gabriel have not given clear public signals on whether the proposed fees should be reduced or kept intact.
Other unresolved issues include:
Does a majority of the council accept its consultant's traffic and fee figures as valid calculations? Should the fees be phased in or grandfathered in? Does a majority of the council think the proposed fee system can be defended in court if a lawsuit is filed against it?
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.
The proposed road impact fees are controversial because new buildings would be assessed fees depending upon the amount of traffic they are expected to create.
The $250 million-$500 million Glacier Town Center and its planned centerpiece 550,000-square-foot outdoor shopping center could face from $6 million to $7 million in road-impact fees spread across 15-25 years - if everything on paper actually materializes. Wolford's first phase - the $80 million shopping center and $20 million in surrounding businesses - is on hold.
In the latest paperwork submitted to the council:
n Citizens for a Better Flathead turned into postcards and a petition with 102 signatures among them that support the current impact-fee proposal.
"Don't let the big developers get away with dumping increased taxes on everyone in their greed to line their own pockets. We most definitely need reasonable impact fees," wrote J.E. Brown of Kalispell on his postcard.
A Citizens for a Better Flathead paper said: "Representatives of retail stores wanting to locate largely north of Kalispell are some of the loudest opponents of Kalispells' proposed traffic impact fees. But these stores want to attract traffic from all across the county to their stores, which will significantly increase traffic on city roads."
n Nine people submitted e-mails and a letter to city hall that also support the current proposal.
"The developers will not pull out just because you adopt these fees. They are fighting you for the obvious reason; the less they pay, the more money they can pocket," wrote Stan Makman.
n Two e-mails opposed the proposed fees.
Patty Dyhrberg of Kalispell wrote: "The city and a very few selfish people in Kalispell [have] done everything [they possibly] can to keep the Glacier Mall from happening. … A beautiful store, Kohl's, is ready to put a classy store here near Lowe's, but with the ridiculously high impact fees, they are not going to be able to build here. … And why should their impact fee be so high when Lowe's, Costco, Famous Dave's, Wells Fargo, Holiday Inn Express are already there generating traffic. They did not have to pay any impact fee."
n Glacier Bank and First Interstate Bank wrote letters that said the proposed impact fees are too high and would penalize developers who have begun projects with specific financing, but have not finished building all of the structures. The Kalispell Chamber of Commerce wrote a similar letter.
"These fees, as currently proposed, would make it difficult for our bank to help with the financing costs of new developments. The resulting impact on the local economy would be devastating to an already deteriorating employment base," wrote Robert Schneider, commercial market president of First Interstate Bank.
Wolford Development has argued that the city should drop all plans to impose road-impact fees. Hutton Ranch Plaza and Spring Prairie developers have said that some road-impact fees are acceptable, but the current proposals are too high.