Staff recommends holding public‑works fees steady after April CPI dip; council debate on SDC levels continues

Public Works staff presented proposed edits to the city’s transportation SDC resolution and recommended holding public‑works fees, post‑construction stormwater charges and connection charges steady this cycle after the April-to‑April construction index showed a small decline.

Robert Edmonds reviewed minor housekeeping edits to the transportation SDC resolution (adding explanatory language and an ITE code to a table) and said his recommendation for the inflationary adjustment was to hold fees at current levels rather than decrease them. Edmonds said the April comparison showed a 1.6% decline year‑over‑year by the measure the city uses, while other month‑to‑month measures would have shown an increase; staff preferred to avoid reversing fees downward and recommended leaving the fees unchanged.

During discussion some councilors urged stronger action on SDCs. Councilor Thompson asked whether the city was charging the maximum SDC rates allowed by state law; staff said water SDCs are at the maximum, wastewater SDCs are at about 62% of the maximum and stormwater SDCs are about 20% of the maximum allowable level. One councilor argued for increasing SDCs to the highest allowable level, saying growth is not paying for itself under current SDC collections and that raising SDCs would shift more of infrastructure funding to development.

Edmonds said the city’s practice is to annually adjust SDCs by the construction cost index; after the April dip staff recommended holding the fees steady and bringing any substantive SDC policy changes to council separately. The council did not take a final vote on SDC policy at the meeting; Edmonds said the recommended action will appear on the Wednesday agenda.