Daily archives for December 7th, 2007
Issaquah School Impact Fees
There has recently been a city hall email buzz about potentially spotty collection of Issaquah School District impact fees.
The City of Renton sits in three different school districts: Renton, Issaquah, and Kent. Both Issaquah and Kent charge impact fees for new construction of homes of a few thousand dollars per home, which is used to off-set the cost of the new schools that will be required to serve the new residents. Renton School District does not charge an impact fee for new homes.
While the fee on new construction is a pass-though, which goes directly to the school district, the City of Renton serves as the collecting authority…we are the agency that is permitting the constuction and collecting fees, so we are in the best position to collect the School district impact fees.
Lately, East Plateau resident (and Issaquah Distict resident) Claudia Donnelly has flagged some new developments where this fee was apparently not collected, or at least not on the time frame she would have expected.
It sounds like this needs to be investigated, as I am now starting to wonder exactly who makes the final declaration about which school district a property is in at the time of building application. For vacant land, it could take a survey and careful mapping to be sure that it is clear which side of the district line each home is on.
The city of Renton receives no benefit either way since the fee is a pass-through. If we are culpable in any way, it’s not because of trying to balance any budgets…it would be more likely process confusion. Clearly, Issaquah has the most to gain in terms of getting this process in order, but we may need to do better in some way ourselves.
The email below is a sample of recent correspondance. The bottom email is from Ms. Donnelly, and includes a letter she posted in the Issaquah Press; the top email is our City Clerk’s response back to her.
I’m sure we will hear more about this before it is completely resolved.
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