MARYSVILLE – Developers could be asked to pay a lot more to help build Marysville roads in the near future.
The city is considering sharply increasing the fees it charges developers for the traffic their buildings add to the roads. Such fees typically are passed on to those buying new homes.
The review of fees was prompted by planning for growth in the newly annexed Whiskey Ridge and Sunnyside areas, where city planners say $48 million in road projects is needed.
In all, the burgeoning city has $188 million in improvement projects on the books, and not enough money to pay for them.
City officials want to improve traffic in Marysville, city engineer Kevin Nielsen said.
“It’s their No. 1 focus,” he said.
The city currently charges developers $3,175 per new single-family home for roads. To pay for all its planned road projects, the city would need to charge builders $14,550 per home.
A more likely figure would be perhaps $6,000 to $7,000 per unit, Nielsen said. The final amount will be up to the City Council. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Monday, and the council could decide then.
If the city raised single-family development fees to $7,712, its rates would be from 100 percent to 150 percent above the average for other cities in the state, according to a consultant’s report done for the city. Right now, its rates are well below that average, the report said.
Marysville currently charges developers $2,318 per duplex unit, $1,968 per apartment or condominium and $1,300 for commercial projects per afternoon peak-hour trip generated. Each of these will likely be raised proportionately to the single-family rate, Nielsen said.
The city considered adding a developer fee for the Whiskey Ridge-Sunnyside area only, on top of the one it charges citywide. But it would have been the first city in the state to do so, city administrator Mary Swenson said.
“There is no one that has a secondary fee for a certain area,” she said.
The Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties would likely have sued the city if it had approved such a fee, said Mike Pattison, government affairs manager for the organization.
“All impact fees concern us because they affect the price of the housing,” Pattison said.
Still, he said the city is on far firmer legal ground by updating a single fee than creating a new, unprecedented charge for a specific area.
Raising the citywide fee also will help pay for the $140 million in road needs elsewhere in the city, Nielsen said. These include connector roads and outlets in Lakewood; widening State Avenue between 116th Street NE and 152nd Street NE, and road improvements in the recently annexed area formerly targeted for a NASCAR track.
The city is borrowing money to pay for much of the $29 million State Avenue widening, Nielsen said.
State and federal funds are trickling in, Nielsen said. But it leaves the city “still a long way from the finish line,” he said.
Projects in Whiskey Ridge include a planned east-west arterial connecting the west end of Highway 92 at Highway 9 with the east end of 40th Street NE, and a road to connect the south end of 67th Avenue NE with the north end of 71st. These would be built when funds become available.
Some residents who live in the area oppose the new roads, contending the city would affect fewer parcels by expanding existing roads instead.
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