Impact fees to fund parks draws fire

COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene City Council on Tuesday voted 6-0 to delay adopting parks, transportation, police and fire Capital Improvement Plans, which would have made way for the adoption of development impact fees.

Council members and Mayor Jim Hammond cited concerns with the proposed impact fees to fund park expansion and improvements.

Several council members said they were not ready to make a decision on the proposed CIPs and needed more information.

“I’m in agreement we still have some work to do,” Hammond said, adding, “That’s my main concern, how we assess those parks fees fairly, appropriately."

Everyone agreed with the need to increase the city's impact fees, which haven’t changed since they were adopted in 2004. The increase would help fund future improvements and expansion in the areas of transportation pegged at $91 million, police at $6.7 million and fire at $8.8 million to keep up with growth.

The city conducted a study on the issue with the assistance of Welch Comer Engineers, FCS Group and Iteris. 

The Planning Commission recommended Nov. 14 that the council adopt the CIPs and to adopt the "maximum defendable fees" as presented. 

They would be assessed on new houses, apartments, condos, hotels, assisted living and nursing homes, churches and commercial development.

The proposed impact fees would raise the cost of a new 2,500-square-foot single-family home in Coeur d’Alene about $9,000.

A new, 18-unit, 18,879-square-foot apartment building in Coeur d'Alene would pay impact fees of $113,029. 

But the $16.9 million in impact fees proposed for new parks and improvements of current ones commanded most of the attention Tuesday night.

“It’s the parks that seem to be the sticky wicket right now,” Hammond said.

Melissa Cleveland, project manager with  Welch-Comer, previously said those staying at hotels use parks and were the targeted audience. 

Under the plan, the new impact fee for parks alone, for a new 89-room hotel in Coeur d’Alene, would be $194,304 based on a per room assessment, or $176,236 based on square footage.

Post Falls, Nampa, Hayden and Twin Falls don’t charge new hotels impact fees to pay for parks.

Bill Reagan, president of The Coeur d’Alene Resort, said there was no question the fees needed to go up. But he said he had a “little problem” with the impact fees on new hotels to pay for parks and had little notice of them.

“I was totally caught off guard,” he said.

He said what was requested in hotel impact fees for parks was 41% more than the total for fire, police and streets.

Reagan said hotels provide tremendous economic benefits for the city and impact fees that are too high could push developers elsewhere.

“All of a sudden the benefits go away,” he said.

He asked the council to delay a decision to allow for “more time to understand what’s going on here.”

Ryan Nipp, a partner in Parkwood Business Properties, said he did not object to the need for capital improvements, but was concerned about the effect of the proposed impact fees on development.

He requested the council delay a decision until late January to allow for more time for input, as there had been little opportunity to do so.

“The first we heard of this was in The Coeur d’Alene Press last week,” he said.

Hammond said the city’s three main waterfront parks, Atlas, McEuen and City Park are the ones used by visitors, and he pointed out impact fees can’t be used to pay for improvements to them.

“I don’t see how we can assess that level of impact to hotels,” Hammond said.

Council member Christie Wood agreed.

She questioned when the city last bought land for a park. 

"The bigger challenge is actually the maintenance of those parks and impact fees don’t help us there at all," Wood said.

Council member Dan Gookin pointed out the parks CIP included $2.4 million to acquire land for future parks. He questioned where that came from.

Gookin said he was not ready to make a decision and said impact fees for parks should be removed commercial development.

He said he needed more details.

"Tell me how this is calculated as opposed to throwing up tables and numbers," Gookin said.

Council member Kiki Miller also agreed more information was needed, but said a decision needed to be made soon.

"I don’t think we should delay it or keep kicking it down the road," she said.

Parks Director Bill Greenwood agreed that visitors use the city’s main three parks which aren’t eligible for impact fees. He said they would review the proposed impact fees for parks and said they could “back off those fees” quite a bit.

“We can dust this off and make it much more presentable for everyone,” he said.

The City Council agreed to resume discussions on the proposed capital improvement plans and associated impact fees on Dec. 5. 

Cleveland said she thought she could have an updated presentation ready by then.