County shelves some proposed impact fees

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County will no longer request that cities collect impact fees to support the Sheriff’s Office or Parks and Waterways.

“At this point, we’ve shelved it, based on feedback from the cities,” Commissioner Bruce Mattare said Wednesday at a meeting with local mayors and city officials.

Mattare said the county hoped to use $13.2 million from impact fees to expand parking, improve boat ramps and improve restroom facilities, with $10.8 million coming from cities.

Commissioners made the original request in July, asking 12 cities to withhold building permits for new construction without impact fee proof of payment.

Several mayors pushed back, calling the proposal unfair to residents, but expressed willingness in August to discuss impact fees supporting the Kootenai County Jail.

Those talks are expected to continue.

“I don’t think there’s any resistance to addressing a public safety issue,” Coeur d’Alene City Council Member Christie Wood said Wednesday.

The jail has been consistently overcrowded for the past two years, according to the sheriff’s office, with an average inmate population of 488. Some inmates are sleeping in bunks on the floor due to lack of beds.

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris has repeatedly lobbied commissioners to fund the completion of two unfinished dormitory pods, which would add 108 beds to the jail. Finishing the pods would cost an estimated $10 million, Norris said.

Legal counsel for the city of Rathdrum previously questioned the methodology behind the proposed impact fees for the jail, saying the connection between population growth and the need for more jail beds is unclear.

Under Idaho law, impact fees may only be used to defray system improvement costs incurred to provide additional public facilities serving new growth. Impact fee ordinances must also provide detailed descriptions of the methodology by which costs per unit are determined.

Mattare said the county will provide cities with more information about the methodology.

Jail impact fees appear to be untested in Idaho. Ada and Canyon counties have reportedly considered using impact fees to support their jails, but no jurisdiction has passed an ordinance to do so yet.

Rathdrum Mayor Vic Holmes said he appreciates the county’s invitation to speak with local mayors and find common goals.

“If we don’t all paddle in the same direction, we don’t get anywhere,” Holmes said.