County increases building charges

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 25, 2004

School impact fees on new single-family homes will go up in eight school districts next year.

The higher fees dodged a last-ditch delay by developers, though. Lobbyists from Master Builders Associations of King and Snohomish counties tried to convince the Snohomish County Council this week to postpone adopting plans that include the higher fees.

School impact fees are charges that builders pay to help school districts build and expand schools to serve new housing.

A Master Builders report found flaws with the plans for school districts where school impact fees for single-family homes are going up: Everett, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Monroe, Mukilteo, Snohomish, Stanwood-Camano Island and Sultan.

The report did not review school district plans where impact fees are being cut, in places such as Arlington and Granite Falls.

The study criticized the eight school districts on how they came up with future enrollment forecasts, and said some of the plans were missing information.

School district representatives said the development interests were late to the dance, and should have raised concerns about their growth plans when the documents were being reviewed by local school boards or the county planning commission earlier this year.

And developers already get their impact fees cut in half because of existing county regulations. What developers really wanted, school district officials and their attorneys said, were changes to the formula that’s used to calculate school impact fees, as well as other rule changes covering vesting and other policies.

After a day’s delay, the council approved the school districts’ capital facility plans.

But not without some editing by Councilman Gary Nelson.

Nelson took exception to a part of the council ordinance, written by county staffers, that approved the plans. It included “flaky-type criticism” mentioning that the development interests hadn’t presented their problems earlier in the process.

Nelson said the council shouldn’t criticize people who testify late, because they still have the right to comment up until the last minute.

“I think it’s just rather immature to now attack a group because they happen to come in here at the day of the hearing and submit information,” Nelson said.

“I’ve never heard so much whining in my whole life,” he said.

Got bail?: AT&T has won the bid to install and service about 234 pay telephones on county property.

A total of 150 will be inmate phones at the county’s new jail. The county will receive 52.3 percent of the gross revenues generated by the pay phones. That’s expected to top $641,700 during the first year the phones are installed.

Claim of the week: A Bothell man wants $648 from the county after his car went across a dip on 46th Avenue Southeast and hit a manhole. The meeting with the manhole cracked the 1995 Dodge Neon’s engine mount and punctured its oil pan.

Next week: The county council considers adopting new rules that ban the use of motorized scooters.

How you can get involved: The public hearing is 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Jackson Board Room, sixth floor of the county administration building.

Reporter Brian Kelly covers county government for the Herald. He can be reached at 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.