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Planning commission hears Fife and Puyallup districts outline school impact-fee updates and bond-dependent projects
Summary
Representatives from Fife and Puyallup school districts briefed the Fife Planning Commission on 2025 capital facilities plans, enrollment growth, and how impact fees factor into large bond-funded projects; commissioners asked about fee calculations, a standard 50% local discount, and potential new development that could change fee collections in Fife.
Representatives from the Fife and Puyallup school districts told the Fife Planning Commission on Feb. 2 that recent enrollment growth and planned capital projects are driving updated school impact-fee calculations that the city will be asked to adopt later this year.
Denise Stifarm of Pacifica Law Group, who works with the Fife School District on its capital facilities plan, said the district’s 2025 plan projects enrollment through the 2030–31 school year. She described recent district growth — about 6.26% over the last planning period — and said planned projects include reconfiguring grade levels and a high-school replacement/expansion to add capacity. Based on that capital plan, the district-calculated single-family impact fee is just under $5,600 after application of a 50% discount that local jurisdictions commonly apply during fee calculation, she said. Stifarm also described the county and state review steps the district follows, including King County technical review and State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review.
Puyallup School District facilities director Brian Devereaux said Puyallup — the sixth-largest district in Washington, with more than 23,000 students — is also experiencing enrollment growth and has several large projects in its capital facilities plan. Devereaux said impact fees are only a small portion of financing for major projects and that bond funding is essential: he described bond packages that passed voter approval rates above 60% but failed validation because of turnout rules. He noted that the district’s calculation spreadsheet yields very large per-unit capital costs (he cited a pre-discount single-family calculation above $33,000), underscoring why bonds remain necessary to cover most construction costs.
Commissioners asked multiple technical questions. Staff and the presenters said the 50% discount commonly applied in local fee calculations originates in county ordinances (not state law) and is reflected in Pierce and King County codes; staff offered to provide the specific code citations for commissioners. Commissioners also asked why the city has not collected impact fees in Fife for about 10 years; Puyallup staff said that lack of new residential construction within the portion of the district that lies inside the city explains the gap, though new development under review could change collections.
There was no formal action; this meeting served as an informational introduction. Staff said they will return to the commission at a future meeting with any proposed ordinance amendments for the city to consider adopting updated school impact fees.
Next steps: city staff will work with the districts and present ordinance language and an adoption schedule to the Planning Commission in a future meeting.
