Post Falls in process of impact fee update

The city of Post Falls is seeking to amend its impact fee report, which will be discussed during a public hearing at the Dec. 13 meeting of the Post Falls Planning and Zoning Commission.

The commission will hold the meeting at Post Falls City Hall, 408 Spokane St., at 5:30 p.m. to accomplish the following:

• Adjust impact fees based upon inflationary cost escalations: Typically, the city utilizes the Engineering News-Record index for these types of updates. Due to the degree of cost escalations, staff desired to complete a more comprehensive approach in this update.

• Basis is on a 10- to 20-year growth cost depending on the impact fee category.

Post Falls first adopted impact fees in 1998, according to information on the city's website.

Impact fees are one-time fees established to have growth pay for its impact on city infrastructure on an incremental basis. They are currently based on inflationary cost escalations and not on updated capital improvement plans. Post Falls collects impact fees for public safety, parks, streets/transportation and multi-modal facilities.

TischlerBise, a fiscal, economic and planning consulting firm with a location in Boise, prepared the city’s current impact fee study from late 2018 through early 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring during the study. Impact fees documented in the TischlerBise's City of Post Falls Capital Improvement Plan and Development Impact Fee Report, March 19, 2021, were adopted in 2021. The city has updated the impact fee schedule on an annual basis using a construction cost index.

Info: www.postfalls.gov