SEQUIM — New impact fees — steep charges developers would pay to build houses, stores and offices in Sequim — could have a dramatic effect on the way this city looks and feels.
Some in the construction and real estate industries worry that increased fees will shut out developers and newcomers, choking the local economy.
Others, such as Sequim Mayor Ken Hays, see impact fees as helping to pay for better quality of life here, in the form of improved streets and parks.
For more than a year, impact and mitigation fees to help pay for roads, recreational spaces, a new City Hall and an new police station have been under consideration by the Sequim City Council.
Meetings coming up
All four of those proposed fees will be discussed in a series of public meetings, thanks to the council’s unanimous approval Monday night of a schedule for the sessions.
First will come an open house, with information about how much the proposed impact fees would increase the total cost of a building permit, and how Sequim’s building costs would then compare with those of Port Angeles and other jurisdictions.
That forum will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Those who attend also will have a chance to look at dozens of other Washington cities that charge impact fees, promised Steve Burkett, Sequim’s city manager.
Members of the public will have a chance to ask questions and make comments, verbal and written, during the event.
“We’ll review those and identify the common themes,” Burkett said.
Then the council will hold a workshop on impact fees Feb. 22, and a public hearing during its March 8 meeting. Those sessions, like almost all council meetings, will start at 6 p.m. in the Transit Center.
Unless many questions and changes arise, the impact fees will be ready for adoption during the March 22 council meeting.
The possibility of the fees, which would add thousands to the cost of a single building permit, spurred North Peninsula Building Association executive officer FaLeana Wech to caution the council Monday night.
Housing construction pours significant revenue into the community, Wech began. And making it much more expensive to build here, she believes, could mean the evaporation of many construction jobs.
Timing not good
“I question the timing of this action,” Wech added. “These are very difficult economic times.”
Realtor Karen Pritchard came forward next. The city manager, she observed, seems to think “it is a fait accompli” — a done deal — that people will keep moving to Sequim.
Pritchard believes that increasing building fees could make homes so expensive that this will be “a community of elitism,” instead of the affordable place some city leaders talk about.
Hays, after saying he appreciated the comments, reminded the audience that the council had merely approved a meeting schedule, and has yet to decide on any new building fees.
Five council members voted in favor of a resolution — written quickly Monday night — supporting a levy for the Sequim School District, a question on the Feb. 9 ballot. Member Erik Erichsen, often a skeptic about taxes, abstained without explaining.
In other action Monday, the council voted 5-1, with Erichsen dissenting, to add $4,000 to the city’s $50,000 share of the costs of the Pitship Pocket Estuary bridge on West Sequim Bay Road.
The bridge, expected to open later this month, was built over a culvert to ease the passage of young salmon through the estuary.
The engineering costs ran over what was anticipated, city finance director Karen Goschen told the council.
Burkett, pointing out that the bridge was mostly paid for by a $380,250 state grant to the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, said he thought it worthwhile for Sequim to contribute $54,000 to the salmon restoration project.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.