More impact fees to be refunded

Two more agencies have confirmed they are returning roughly $80,000 in impact fees to property owners and builders, following Kootenai County's suspension of the growth-related fees.

Worley Fire District has decided to refund the $37,583 it received over the 18 months county impact fees were collected.

The Post Falls Highway District will also return $44,024 collected for its agency over the same period.

The fire district commissioners deemed that returning the funds was only fair, said Chairman Ron Hise.

After all, the fee suspension means builders are suddenly no longer required to fork over dollars to cover the impact of their projects.

"A person who wanted to do something one week had to pay a couple thousand dollars of impact fees. Then the next week, his neighbor wanted to do the same thing, and didn't have to pay anything at all, because the rules changed," Hise said. "We didn't think that was right."

The fire district's fees will be refunded to 13 individuals and commercial entities, according to agency staff.

Impact fees are charged to builders of new commercial and residential projects. The dollars help fund infrastructure for taxing districts, to help them accommodate the extra demand.

The Kootenai County commissioners approved implementing impact fees for several taxing districts a year and a half ago. But they voted to suspend the fees in December, due to complications with collection and complaints that the fee structure was unfair.

Hise said the fire district had already used collected impact fees to develop its training facility.

The refund had to come out of the district's budget, he said.

"It might just slow down the development of our training facility," he admitted.

Even though the commissioners have said they hope to eventually revive impact fees, Worley Fire District will have no part in it, Hise said.

"We decided as a board, we're not interested in bringing them back," Hise said. "When the commissioners changed their mind, we thought, 'We don't want anything to do with this anymore.' We'll just make things work out in other ways."

The Post Falls Highway District commissioners decided just last week to return collected fees to the 23 individuals who paid them, said Commissioner Lynn Humphreys.

The agency's refund includes the 4 percent administrative fee the county collected before turning the dollars over to the highway district, he said.

"We felt it was the only fair and proper way to do the transaction," Humphreys said of giving the whole refund.

The district commissioners agreed a refund was wise, he added, in case it was later found the fees hadn't been set up correctly.

Humphreys still has faith in impact fees as a tool to manage new growth, he said.

"I firmly believe that there's a possibility that those impact fees could be reinstated, and a procedure put in place that would be beneficial for everyone concerned," he said.

Timberlake Fire District previously announced its plans to refund more than $70,000 in impact fees.

The county commissioners are still weighing whether to refund impact fees collected for county departments, including parks, the jail and the sheriff's department.

The matter will be discussed at a meeting next Thursday, said Commissioner Todd Tondee.

The commissioners are also still analyzing the viability of impact fees overall, he said, including whether cities will agree to help with collection.

"I don't have any hopes either way," Tondee said. "What I'm trying to do is make sure we evaluate and do a better job than what we did before."