Council scales park, transportation and pedestrian impact fees to meet state law

On June 3 the North Bend City Council approved an ordinance amending city impact fee schedules and related code to conform to recent state law that requires local jurisdictions to scale certain residential impact fees.

Finance staff and consultant FCS Group recommended scaling park, transportation and bicycle/pedestrian mitigation fees by residential square footage after the state enacted a law requiring cities to scale impact fees by building size, bedrooms or trips generated. Martin Cha, finance director, summarized: “FCS has provided a study ... their recommendation is to scale those impact fees based on residential square footage.”

The ordinance (AB25‑060) amends the city’s tax, rates and fees schedules and updates NBMC chapters governing park impact fees (17.36), transportation impact fees (17.38) and methods to mitigate development impacts (17.42). Planning Commission reviewed the proposal and noted one comment from hotel applicants; staff recommended not making additional changes to hotel fee treatment at this time in order to meet the June 30 statutory deadline for the periodic update.

Council approved the ordinance as a first and final reading; the vote was unanimous. Staff said the change responds directly to state law and is intended to make middle‑scale residential development more financially predictable for builders and buyers.

Ending: Staff will implement the revised fee tables and monitoring measures and will consider any additional fee studies (for example, a separate analysis on hotel fees) outside this time‑sensitive adoption.