IMPACT: Return fees to people

So, impact fees are being returned after a disastrous endeavor to implement them. What could go wrong in this process? After all, Idaho law is clear when it states in the impact fee chapter, under the section of the law titled “REFUNDS:” “When a right to a refund exists, the governmental entity is required to send a refund to the property owner of record within ninety days after it is determined by the governmental entity that a refund is due.”

Timberlake Fire tried to send the refunds to the applicant for the permit, and it took a threat of a lawsuit before I was able to ensure that the refunds would go to the property owners. Worley Fire (on advice of their attorney, no less!) sent refund checks to the applicant (usually the builder) and then sent a letter to the property owner informing them about what they had done with the money. The county commissioners were creating an ordinance to send out checks to the property owner, but made out to both the property owner and the applicant until I brought the Statute to their attention, and Post Falls Highway district is also requiring double sign offs prior to issuing the checks. Spirit Lake Fire was getting ready to cut checks to the applicants until I called them about it. The only district that seems to be getting this process right is East Side Fire.

These flawed processes result in builders being able to extort a portion in return for a signature on the checks. For example, Timbered Ridge Homes is not signing off on the impact fee refunds for the homes they built, and if the other districts proceed in their unlawful refund processes, this type of scenario will be repeated. Either the property owner will have to pay a portion of the refund to some of the builders under a situation not unlike extortion, or be required to file a lawsuit.

Why do the districts not care about the messes they are causing? Is it just a way to punish the people yet again for the district staff’s failure to read the laws when the impact fees were originally created? Are all the districts and their legal staff really this incompetent? Perhaps this is proof that impact fees are just too complicated for Idaho governments to figure out. After all, when they can’t even figure out how to give the money back when it is clearly spelled out, then how can they be expected to understand the complex regulations regarding collection and limitations on use in the first place?

LARRY SPENCER

Hayden