Impact fees for Seattle developments? City Hall discussion tomorrow – public comment, too

The topic comes up at meetings … in online discussions (including here) … mayors past and present have been asked about them: Should/could Seattle charge “impact fees” in connection with development projects? Tomorrow, the City Council Transportation Committee plans a lunchtime discussion:

Impact Fees 101 — An opportunity for discussion related to impact fees in the City of Seattle. An examination of the different types of impact fees that exist, the history of impact fees in Washington State, how they are utilized by other cities in the region, their limitations, and other relevant information relating to impact fees.

It’s scheduled as an hourlong briefing starting at noon Wednesday (September 10th), followed by ~20 minutes of public comment, in the council chambers at City Hall downtown. At least one advocacy group says it’s hoping for a big turnout (while noting it hadn’t heard about this till the other day; we didn’t get an announcement until this morning).

8 Replies to "Impact fees for Seattle developments? City Hall discussion tomorrow - public comment, too"

  • Hello WS Land Use Committee September 9, 2014 (1:08 pm)

    Sneaky manuevers by city…no advance notice. Same old Sh*t.
    Hope scads show up to put it in perspective.

    Out of town developers’ apartment buildings dumping (sorry) sewage into our bay and sound without paying fees.

    Bites.

    Out of town developers with no parking and
    NO CONTRIBUTION TO INFRASTRUCTURE to support wear and tear on EVERYTHING.

    I know there are wealthy greedy familys/property owners who love that and the long-time k*ss ass groups which worship them, but still have hope that the rest of sane and regla’ WS makes comments and strong opinions known.

    Remember these people are elected and could maybe even ahould get unelected for lack of foresight and mature thoughtful process. That’s you Sally (open the floodgates and close your eyes) and Tom (85 feet? No problem, right?)

    Cap the greed. Let’s be a grown up city and MAKE SOME REAL RATIONAL REVENUE,

  • sam-c September 9, 2014 (1:25 pm)

    sounds like a worthwhile meeting.

    (unfortunately I already have another meeting that I have to attend..) maybe I will email the committee members instead

  • Diane September 9, 2014 (1:41 pm)

    yes, sam-c; please email city council; and the meeting is recorded on seattlechannel; you can watch later

  • Diane September 9, 2014 (1:43 pm)

    Thanks for the link to past comments; I’ve made many on this topic, but forgot about this one from nearly 2yrs ago
    ~
    Amazon’s two megadeals net $24 million for city, state governments
    http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2012/12/amazons-two-mega-buys-net-city-state.html?ana=e_tf&s=newsletter&ed=2012-12-27
    ~
    “In a 24-hour period last week, Clise Properties and Vulcan Inc., with help from Amazon.com, deposited more than $24.2 million in tax revenue into the coffers of the city of Seattle and state of Washington.”
    ~
    zero to Metro
    ~
    we need more Rapid Ride buses; every developer in this transit hub should buy one new Rapid Ride bus per 100 new apartments AND pay transit/road impact fees
    ~
    Comment by Diane — 2:58 pm December 30, 2012

    • WSB September 9, 2014 (1:59 pm)

      I know, I wish I had an easy format for “link to all comments that mentioned impact fees,” but I don’t, so I had to just grab one.

  • kgdlg September 9, 2014 (5:07 pm)

    @Hello WS Land Use Committee
    It is funny that you reference sewage, because currently the largest fee paid to develop multi-family buildings (aside from building permit and other utility hook up fees) is the King County Sewer Hook-Up Fee. Some developers pay this up front and some pay over several years through operations. But, for example, on a project I am working on (affordable) this fee will be well above 500k and it goes right to the County’s budget to build things like Brightwater and the local CSO projects like the ones happening down at Lowman etc. right now (to keep raw sewage from going into the Sound). While this is not an Impact Fee, per se, it is substantial and something that is “supposed” to account for the impact these buildings have on the increased needs of the overall system, which is ailing.

  • Hello WS Land Use September 9, 2014 (7:09 pm)

    Are you an out of town (state/country) owner/developer kcdig?

    That is who I am directing my antipathy towards today. Your interests are not in my line of sight nor necessarily the target for reform in DPD.

    Carry on.

  • JoAnne September 10, 2014 (7:56 am)

    Development fees are just another way for the greedy city to exploit development while letting it go on with no restrictions.
    .
    Our infrastructure here is already overloaded here, but the city is so greedy they just don’t care.

Sorry, comment time is over.