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Board adopts capital facilities plan, sets lower impact fees and urges broader review
Summary
The board adopted Resolution 1240 to approve the 2020'2025 Capital Facilities Plan and new impact-fee schedules that would take effect Jan. 1: single-family $5,350 and multifamily (2+ bedrooms) about $3,003. Directors pressed staff about the drop from prior fees and discussed countywide 50% discounts and limits of impact fees to fund full school construction.
The Everett Public Schools board unanimously adopted Resolution 1240 on Aug. 25 to approve the district's 2020'2025 Capital Facilities Plan, which sets the student-generation assumptions, inventory of facilities and the six-year financing plan used to calculate school impact fees.
Planner Mike Gunn walked the board through the plan's purpose, the student-generation study and a formula mandated by the Washington Growth Management Act. Gunn said the single-family impact fee generated by the formula (after the county's longstanding 50% discount) would be $5,350 per single-family home and roughly $3,003 per multifamily 2+ bedroom unit, effective Jan. 1.
"If we move forward with this as proposed, the single-family rate that we would be charging every new single-family home builder in the county for the next 2 years beginning January 1 would be $5,350," Gunn said.
Directors asked how the district's previously higher fees (around $14,250 two years ago) fell so far; Gunn explained the drop was primarily because a planned new high school dropped off the current six-year horizon, which reduced the cost variables the formula uses. Board members raised concerns that reduced fees would make it harder to fund long-range construction or meaningful capacity projects and urged examining local strategies for maximizing fee value.
Several directors urged follow-up work sessions and potential legislative advocacy to address what they described as an antiquated methodology and county-level 50% reductions, which limit local control over school-impact revenue. Directors also discussed eligible uses for impact fees (increasing permanent capacity, buy portables, property acquisition) and the limited time window for expenditure.
After questioning and comments acknowledging the plan as a snapshot based on spring assumptions, the board moved and adopted Resolution 1240 by voice vote.
