Lake Stevens planning commission recommends council adopt 2025 docket; downtown impact fees expected to rise

The Lake Stevens Planning Commission voted unanimously to forward the 2025 comprehensive-plan docket to the City Council, endorsing text and figure updates to the city’s 6-year and 20-year capital improvement programs and transportation elements.

Planning manager Christie Schmidt presented the package, noting staff worked with consultant Transpo to update the traffic impact-fee (TIF) methodology and the city’s TIF cost basis — the first update since 2012. Schmidt said the presentation included two late exhibits (11 and 12) and an earlier May 4 letter from the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish County (exhibit 10). “We’re looking at a doubling in cost for T I Z 1,” Schmidt said, adding that the downtown zone’s fee would increase by about $3,000 to roughly $5,600; Zones 2 and 3 would see a modest increase of about $60.

The amendments are text and figure updates only and do not change land-use maps, Schmidt said. The package also refines the 20-year transportation improvement list (Table 9.1 and related tables/figures) and adjusts how projects are rated and how grant revenues reduce project costs before fees are set.

Commissioners questioned details raised in submitted comments. Thomas E. Hanson’s letter (exhibit 11) questioned the consultant’s allocation for active-transportation elements; Transpo responded in exhibit 12 defending the methodology and its consistent application across projects. Commissioners asked staff to clarify Hanson’s reference to a “50%” figure; Schmidt explained that the comment referred to percent of an active-transportation project’s total cost that the methodology treats as eligible for impact-fee funding.

Commissioners also discussed a Master Builders comment that higher fees can reduce affordability — one paragraph in that letter said, as cited by a commissioner, that “for every thousand dollar increase in the median price of a home, 25 families are priced out.” Staff did not adopt that specific calculation but acknowledged the conceptual relationship between added development costs and affordability. A planning/agency staff speaker noted that while the specific number was not verified, “every extra cost put on a housing proposal does equate to” impacts on affordability regionally.

On the question of vesting — whether developers can lock in a fee at the time of application — staff said Lake Stevens does not currently vest impact fees. Schmidt told commissioners the recommended implementation would delay the new rates’ effective date until July 1 so in‑flight projects with building permits could pay at the current rate, but the city’s practice remains that the fee in effect when a building-permit payment is made governs the amount owed.

Action: Chair Bruce Morton moved to forward the recommendation letter (exhibit 9) to the City Council, Commissioner Conner Davis seconded; the commission recorded a unanimous vote in favor. Staff said it will fill in the motion letter’s header with members present/absent and email it for signatures. Schmidt said the City Council hearing on the docket is scheduled for May 26.

What it means: If the City Council adopts the package as recommended, downtown builders and future single-family projects in Zone 1 would face substantially higher traffic impact fees, while most other zones would see minimal change. The commission’s recommendation will be one factor considered at the council’s public hearing.