North Bend planning commission backs residential impact fee updates, asks council to study hotel park fee

The North Bend Planning Commission on the evening of the meeting reviewed proposed amendments to the city’s impact-fee regulations and voted to forward the changes to city council, while also asking the council to study whether hotels should continue to pay park impact fees.

The commission’s review focused on code changes prepared by city staff to comply with recent state legislation and to scale residential impact fees “according to either building size, trips generated, or number of bedrooms,” City Associate Planner Caitlin Hepworth said during her presentation. “We are bound by a June 30 deadline” to revise residential impact-fee methodology to conform with state law, Hepworth said, referring to state action cited in the staff report.

The amendments in the packet implement the consultant FCS Group’s recommendations for scaling fees and adjust multiple chapters of the North Bend Municipal Code that govern park, transportation and pedestrian/bicycle impact fees. Key changes recommended to the council include: an 80% discount on park “parking pack” fees for qualifying affordable rental and ownership housing; a new, smaller 20% discount category for units the staff describes as “workforce housing;” explicit treatment of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that keeps ADUs within the same ownership eligible for a credit, and…