Kalispell OKs smaller impact fees

Kalispell's road impact fees will be 38 percent of what was originally proposed - until April 1, 2011.

After that, the transportation impact fees will be 51 percent of the original proposed fees.

That compromise emerged from a Monday special City Council meeting to resolve the controversial road impact fee issue.

Here are the council's decisions by the numbers:

- The council voted 7-2 to remove five of the 10 street improvements that the road impact fees were supposed to pay for.

So the estimated needed money dropped from $12.4 million to $6.3 million, which is 51 percent of the original figure. Council Members Jim Atkinson and Randy Kenyon dissented, wanting to stick to the $12.4 million list.

The removed projects were upgrading parts of Three Mile Drive and Four Mile Drive, extending Grandview Drive to Whitefish Stage Road, extending 18th Street, and upgrading Seventh Avenue East North where it connects to Whitefish Stage Road.

Left on the list are extending Rose Crossing from Whitefish Stage Road to Farm-To-Market road, plus upgrading parts of Four Mile Drive, Stillwater Road, West Springcreek Road and Two Mile Drive.

- The council voted 5-4 not to delay action on the road impact fees for two years in hopes that the economy will improve.

Mayor Pam Kennedy plus council members Tim Kluesner, Kari Gabriel and Duane Larson wanted the two-year delay. Hank Olson, Wayne Saverud, Bob Hafferman, Atkinson and Kenyon opposed the proposed delay.

- The council voted 8-1 to charge only 75 percent of the proposed impact fees for any developer who applies for a building permit by April 1, 2011. Seventy-five percent of 51 percent is 38 percent of the original amount. Kluesner dissented.

In other words, the original proposed road impact fee of $928 for a new house will now be about $355 through April 1, 2011 and roughly $473 after that date.

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.

High-traffic projects could expect to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. Glacier Town Center and its planned centerpiece 550,000-square-foot outdoor shopping center could pay millions of dollars.

That prompted heavy opposition of the fees by Kalispell's biggest developers, the construction industry and the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce. However, there was also substantial support for the originally proposed fees.

Council members' opinions covered the entire spectrum from being adamantly for the fees to being vehemently against any fees to being split down the middle.

"I think this is the best compromise possible given the divisiveness of the issue," said Mayre Flowers, director of Citizens for a Better Flathead, which pushed for the originally recommended fees.

Ken Kalvig, an attorney representing Glacier Town Center developer Wolford Development, said the council's decisions still left it too hazy for him to calculate the expected road impact fees for the mall.

Kalvig said there is a high probability that the adopted road impact fees will be challenged in court, contending they are illegal under Montana law.

However, City Attorney Charles Harball told the council that the fees solidly follow state law.

The leaders of the opposition against the proposed road-impact fees are the north side's three biggest developers - Wolford Development with Glacier Town Center, Mark Goldberg with the Spring Prairie Center and Philip Harris with Hutton Ranch Plaza.

The Wolfords and Harris are against all road-impact fees, although Harris recently switched to that position from a softer one of accepting 'reasonable fees."

Goldberg wanted the road-impact fees put on hold until the Kalispell economy renews its growth of the past few years - growth that stalled significantly in 2008. As a second choice, Goldberg last month proposed a five-year "grandfather" period for the fees.

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