Council gets an earful about road impact fees
Twenty-one people pitched several different scenarios Monday to the Kalispell City Council about how the city should approach a controversial road impact fee proposal.
Fifteen wanted to eliminate or trim the proposal in some way. Six supported the fees presented in a consultant's study.
The majority of the 21 had spoken in past public hearings on the subject.
Many in Monday's majority came from the development and business community.
Seven definitely wanted to eliminate the proposed fees altogether. Three wanted to delay them until the economy turns Kalispell back into a booming, growing city. Another person supported either eliminating or delaying the fees.
Two supported a grandfather clause that would exempt projects currently on the drawing board, or at least had preliminary plats issued. Three opposed that idea.
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.
Joe Unterreiner, president of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, said: "This plan unfairly targets business, especially retail business. … This plan is too flawed and the timing is poor."
Kalispell resident John De Neeve said: "You're slowly letting developers punch holes [in the proposal] with their opinions. … The developers won't build anyway because the market is horrible."
The council did not discuss the topic after Monday's hearing. At a March 9 special meeting, the council expects to discuss and then vote on one of three scenarios for the road-impact fees.
The scenarios are:
n Adopting the fees as presented in a consultant's study.
The impact fee on a new single-family home would be $928. But high-traffic projects - such as Glacier Town Center and its planned centerpiece 550,000-square-foot outdoor shopping center - can expect to pay millions.
n Exempting projects that had preliminary plats approved between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2009, for six years after the approval date. Preliminary plats were granted after July 1, 2004, to Glacier Town Center's main outdoor shopping complex, Hutton Ranch Plaza, Spring Prairie Center and projects involving 1,645 future homes.
n Charging only 75 percent of the proposed impact fees for any developer who applies for a building permit by April 1, 2011.
Speakers at Monday's hearing made a variety of points:
n Spring Prairie Center developer Mark Goldberg said he already has paid for $2.6 million in street improvements even though no road impact fees currently exist.
n Citizens For A Better Flathead turned in 70 signatures on a petition to support the consultant-recommended impact fees. That brings the total up to 314 when previously submitted signatures are counted. Nine of the 314 did not have Kalispell addresses.
n Some people noted that the impact fee advisory committee ultimately split 3-2 against the fee package that it forwarded to the council.
n Since impact fees and taxes each pay percentages of the upgrades for targeted roads, having a big list of upgrades translates to higher impact fees, which also translate to higher taxes, according to Myrna Terry (chairwoman of the impact fee advisory committee who was speaking as a private citizen) and George Culpepper Jr., government affairs director for the Flathead Building Association.
n Some people argued that having no impact fees would increase the tax burden on Kalispell residents to upgrade roads to deal with the increased traffic.
n Others argued that impact fees would scare way businesses and jobs from moving to Kalispell.
n Some argued that developers pay taxes and the employees of their future businesses will pay taxes.
n Impact committee member Jerry Reckin and Mayre Flowers, director of Citizens For A Better Flathead, said the grandfathering proposal would remove impact fees from the city's biggest development projects that would create the greatest volumes of traffic.
Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com