Council to consider new impact fees

COEUR d’ALENE — A public hearing is scheduled before the Coeur d’Alene City Council at 6 tonight on the Parks, Transportation, Police and Fire Capital Improvements Plans.

The move would “allow subsequent adoption of Development Impact Fees."

Resolutions on both the CIPs and the development impact fee and annexation report will also be considered at the meeting in the Library Community Room.

The new fees would be effective July 1. They would be applied to new construction, including houses, commercial structures, schools, churches, apartments and hotels.

The city has held multiple workshops and meetings in the past year on the CIP and impact fees, which would help fund future expansions and improvements in the area of police, fire, parks and transportation.

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

"Care was taken to establish a defensible representation of the allocation of capital projects and facilities for 'growth’s share,'" a city report said. "This involved utilizing estimates for population and visitor growth, along with projections for residential and non-residential growth."

The city's impact fees haven’t changed since they were adopted in 2004. The development impact fees the council will consider are for 2024-2028.

Parks improvements in Coeur d’Alene are pegged at about $11.6 million with $9.6 million eligible for impact fees.

Transportation projects are estimated at $88 million, with $31 million eligible for impact fees.

Fire projects total $8.8 million, with 100% of those costs eligible for impact fees.

Police station expansion, substation construction and storage space come in at $6.7 million, with $4.8 million impact-fee eligible. 

The proposed CIPs and impact fees have, for the most part, attracted little public attention.

According to a staff report, the city received emails and testimony from Mark Robitaille with the Coeur d’Alene Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ryan Nipp with Parkwood Properties, Bill Reagan with The Coeur d’Alene Resort and John Magnuson, “each expressing a concern with the Parks CIP and having impact fees charged to hotels.”

In response, changes were made to the Parks CIP, including, reduced project expenses for the two BLM parks, reduced the land acquisition from 10 acres to 5 acres, reduced the level of service to 4 acres per 1,000 population, and increased the anticipated overnight visitors based on information from staff that changed growth’s share of improvements to existing parks.