SEQUIM — After years of talk, the numbers are out.
Four new developer fees — charges to shape the Sequim of the future — could be adopted this spring by the Sequim City Council.
These impact and mitigation fees, as city planners call them, would help Sequim improve parkland, streets and sidewalks and help build a new city hall and police station, city leaders said.
The whole idea is to make growth pay for growth, so as people move to Sequim, the expense of those quality-of-life features are built into housing construction costs.
The proposed fees are substantial: Together, all four could add as much as $9,037 to the cost of building one single-family home.
A building permit already costs $15,800 in Sequim, because of water and sewer hookup charges of $5,400 and $7,200, respectively.
So Sequim is already an expensive place to build.
Only place on Peninsula
And if the council adopts the proposed charges, it will become the only North Olympic Peninsula community to impose impact fees, said city planning director Dennis Lefevre.
To explain how the fees work, how other Washington communities have fared with them and to compare Sequim building costs with other Peninsula locales, Lefevre will co-host an open house from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Sequim Transit Center at 190 W. Cedar St.
Randy Young of Henderson & Young, the consultancy Sequim hired to conduct studies of the proposed fees, will give a PowerPoint presentation, and attendees will be invited to ask questions and make oral and written comments.
During the forum, everything will be broken down.
The proposed fee to pay for parks, such as the 45-acre Keeler Memorial Park yet to be developed on the east side of town, would be at most $3,950 per single-family home.
The maximum fee per home for street improvements would be $2,893, while the fees for a new police station and city hall could be $718 and $1,476, respectively.
The city could opt for lower fees, however; Henderson & Young arrived at these maximums through conducting their studies.
‘Pretty shocking’
Still, those figures are “pretty shocking,” said builder Greg McCarry of Westerra Homes. He believes permit fees have already skyrocketed, rising more than 150 percent since 2006.
Another steep hike now, when the Sequim real estate market is slumping, could do real harm to the local economy, said FaLeana Wech, executive officer of the North Peninsula Building Association.
“The strength of our economy is largely based upon housing. It’s important to not put up barriers to growth and new development,” she said.
McCarry added that home prices are depressed by 15 to 20 percent — and if thousands are added to the cost of a building permit, the builder cannot pass on those costs to the buyer.
Already, home builders and new residents contribute significantly to the city’s coffers, he said: They’re paying sales taxes, the real estate excise tax and property taxes.
Keep raising the building fees, Wech and McCarry both say, and Sequim will drive development — and tax revenue — out onto unincorporated county land.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays, meanwhile, said he’s trying to keep an open mind heading into the open house.
Coming eventually
“Impact fees are coming to the city eventually whether they like it or not,” he added. “I do think we need the parks and transportation fees.”
Those police station and city hall fees, though, are “a tough sell,” he said.
As for the specter of shutting off development through steep building fees, Hays said that’s not his goal.
“A healthy city is one that grows,” said the mayor, who is also an architect.
“I’m seeing this from both sides,” Hays said.
He acknowledged, too, that those fee figures caused his eyes to widen, much like they took builders aback.
Yet “I’m looking forward to the open house,” he added.
“Hopefully, people will come prepared to have a dialogue.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.