By Warren Cornwall
Herald Writer
Housing development companies are trying to force Snohomish County to return millions of dollars collected to pay for roads, schools and parks near new developments.
Sundquist Homes and Avance Homes filed a class-action claim against the county and a long list of other local governments, arguing the county has illegally collected the money — called impact fees — since 1995.
If successful, the claim could force local governments to pay back tens of millions of dollars already collected and spent, and put a temporary halt to further collections.
"They don’t sue frivolously," Mike Pattison, lobbyist for the Snohomish County-Camano Association of Realtors, said of Lynnwood-based Sundquist Homes. "I think the county should take this seriously."
Impact fees have been used to pay for everything from jungle gyms in parks to new school classrooms and road-widening projects. All told, the county has collected more than $80 million in impact fees since 1995. The county council recently raised one impact fee and is counting on it to help pay for multimillion-dollar transportation projects.
But the developers argue the county has failed to do the planning required by state law before it can legally begin charging the fees.
"If you’re going to collect taxes and have people abide by and feel good about paying the taxes, you have to make sure they are legal," said Lynn Sarko, an attorney for the Seattle law firm of Keller Rohrback LLP, which filed the claim.
A claim is often the prelude to a lawsuit. The governments named in the claim can pay it, reject it, or simply not reply. The filing names the county along with 11 school districts in the county and the city of Mill Creek.
Tom Fitzpatrick, assistant chief of the civil division for the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office, said they were still looking at the claim, which was filed Friday.
"We will investigate the allegations and determine whether or not they have merit," he said.
The development companies say the county owes them at least $2.8 million in damages. But that amount could balloon if the claim is granted class action status. Then it could extend to anyone who has paid impact fees to the county since 1995, except for a 13-month window in 1999 and 2000.
The heads of the companies that filed the claim could not be reached for comment Monday. In addition to Sundquist Homes and Avance Homes, a number of related companies are included in the claim.
The problem is tied to a series of decisions by a regional hearings board, which found the county’s chief planning guidelines were flawed, said Amy Hanson, another attorney working on the case.
State law requires the county to have those plans in place before collecting impact fees. Despite the hearings board decisions, which stretch back to 1995, the county never stopped collecting impact fees, Hanson said.
"It needs to go back and fix it before it collects it. What it does instead is go ahead and collect it," Hanson said.
A number of those challenges were filed by people pushing for stronger growth controls, who are often at odds with developers and supportive of impact fees.
Jody McVittie, a Lake Stevens resident who has lobbied for higher impact fees, has filed a number of appeals to the hearings board challenging the adequacy of county planning. While she has won several challenges, the board has consistently rejected her claims that the overall plans fall short.
McVittie said housing industry trade groups have often sided with the county to fight her challenges, and now developers are taking the opposite position.
"These guys sound as if they just don’t want to contribute," she said.
You can call Herald Writer Warren Cornwall at 425-339-3463 or send e-mail to cornwall@heraldnet.com.
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