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Kittitas County seeks public hearing to add franchise amendment, road-use and special water-banking fees
Summary
Public Works presented proposed fee additions and code amendments — including a franchise amendment fee, a road-use agreement fee for short-term closures/filming, and a special price for a limited-location water-banking asset — and the board directed staff to schedule public hearings.
Kittitas County Public Works asked the Board of Commissioners to direct staff to prepare amendments to the county fee schedule and to schedule public hearings on several proposed new or revised fees.
Public Works staff said the county’s public works fees are adopted by resolution under Chapter 4.16 of the Kittitas County Code and were last amended in January 2024. The department proposed adding an amendment or extension fee for franchise agreements, a road-use agreement fee to cover administration and potential county resource use (for short-term film shoots or advertising that require temporary road closures), and a separate pricing approach for a limited water-banking asset acquired as Roan Bank water rights.
On franchise agreements, staff said state statute sets expiration timelines for franchises and that some franchisees have requested extensions. “We currently don't have an extension or amendment fee to amend the franchise to go forward,” the presenter said, recommending that an amended franchise be charged the same as a new-franchise fee because processing and code updates require comparable work.
For short-term road use, staff described recent requests from the film industry and said the county needs a road-use agreement with an associated base fee plus the ability to recover additional costs (for traffic control equipment, message boards or county personnel) on an hourly or per-resource basis. “Especially if they're utilizing county resources like message boards or road closure signs or anything like that, we definitely would wanna recoup that,” the presenter said.
On water banking, staff identified a contracted purchase of Roan Bank water rights that serve a limited area and limited volume; Public Works proposed setting a different price for that specific water-banking asset to reflect the purchase cost and scarcity of the rights.
A commissioner asked whether traffic-control costs would be additional to the application fee; staff replied that the base fee would cover upfront processing and that additional time or county resources would be recovered separately. The board provided direction to schedule public hearings and to prepare enabling documents for the proposed fees.
No final fee amounts were adopted at the meeting; staff will present proposed fees and code changes at public hearings for board consideration.
