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Kalispell council adopts police, fire impact fee reports; council declines immediate fee increase
Summary
On Oct. 6 the Kalispell City Council adopted Resolution 62-94 to accept police and fire impact fee reports and the associated fee schedule, removed an administration fee and added an annual price-indexing clause per Senate Bill 133; Councilor Hunter cast the sole vote against the resolution because he supported raising impact fees now.
The Kalispell City Council on Oct. 6 adopted Resolution 62-94 to accept the September 2025 police and fire impact fee reports and to adopt the associated fee schedules. The resolution removes the prior administration fee and provides for an annual price-index increase tied to Senate Bill 133; councilors were explicit that the action does not raise the current fee amounts.
Planning staff member Nygren told council that the resolution is a paperwork cleanup and that state law requires the city to adopt an updated impact-fee report because the previous report would have been more than ten years old. He said the proposal does not increase fees now but incorporates the fee schedule that had been previously considered.
"This is really just a little bit of cleanup. This proposal for you does not increase fees," Nygren said during the presentation.
Councilor Dowd moved the resolution and Councilor Fisher seconded. Councilor Hunter spoke in opposition, saying he supported raising the impact fees to reflect the assessed impact of development. "I will not be supporting this simply because it, does not raise the impact fees like what we had recommended to us," Hunter said.
The council approved the resolution by a 6-1 roll-call vote: Councilor Dowd, Councilor Dahlmann, Councilor Fisher, Councilor Nunnally, Councilor Carlson and Mayor Johnson voted yes; Councilor Hunter voted no.
Council discussion clarified that impact fees are assessed at building-permit issuance and therefore are paid by the party building the house, not necessarily the developer who subdivided the lot. A council member noted the impact-fee report calculates the maximum allowable fee but leaves the policy decision about where to set the fee to the council.
The resolution amends prior resolutions (5744 and 5745) and formally adopts the updated police and fire impact fee reports as findings of fact and the associated fee schedules. Council members discussed potential future use of impact-fee policy as part of the city's housing strategy.
