Developers upset about Kent City Council’s process to pass fire impact fee

Builders claim the Kent City Council used a “ramrod” approach to approve a new fire impact fee that developers must pay.

“This ordinance frustrated and surprised our members,” said David Hoffman, spokesman for the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBA), during a phone interview. “It almost appears they were trying to hide this, going from committee to the consent calendar.”

The council passed the ordinance on Sept. 1 as part of its consent calendar, a list of numerous items approved with a voice vote by the council with no discussion about the issues. The new fee will help pay for as many as five new fire stations in Kent over the next 16 years or so.

“I’m perplexed and frustrated with the process,” said Hoffman, who claimed the city didn’t give the builders a proper chance to comment about the fee.

City officials denied any “ramrod” approach and said opportunities to speak about the fee were provided at two of the council’s Economic and Community Development Committee meetings in August as well as council meetings twice a month in July and August during the public comment period.

“It’s the same process everything goes through,” Council President Dana Ralph said. “I don’t understand that we were trying to be hidden.”

Hoffman said he believes the city should have had a public hearing about the fire impact fee.

“The city attorney is advising the council there is no need for a public hearing,” Hoffman said. “We are reading the public process and hearing procedures different than Kent.”

City Attorney Tom Brubaker said impact fees don’t require a public hearing.

“When they (MBA) complained we scoured the RCWs (Revised Code of Washington) and WACs (Washington Administrative Code) once again, but could not find any public hearing requirement,” Brubaker said in an email about state laws. “There are public notice requirements, which we met, but no public hearing requirement.”

Developer Kurt Wilson, of Puyallup-based SoundBuilt Northwest, sent an email to the council the day of its Sept. 1 meeting asking it to delay a vote for 30 days or more.

“As a builder in Kent for the last 15 years, it frustrates me to have no notice of this contemplated action provided to me via email, mail, etc. of such a drastic change in permit fees,” Wilson wrote. “In most all jurisdictions I work, city staff engages the industry early in the process as to help educate and provide notice to those affected.

“This effort also allows for constructive feedback in a public hearing process so that all of the facts can be presented. It makes no sense why the city would be in such a hurry to ‘ram-rod’ this through without MBA’s participation.”

Builders and city officials said they met in July to discuss a potential fire impact fee. But Hoffman said his group expected city staff to inform them about when the proposed fee would go to committee and the full council.

“We have a whole number of ideas but had no opportunity to share with the council or staff,” Hoffman said. “There was no contacting us or a public hearing.”

Councilman Bill Boyce, chairman of the Economic and Community Development Committee, said he allows anyone who attends the meeting to comment about an item on the agenda if they want. He said the MBA also can follow committee and council agendas.

“I let people comment at all of my committee meetings,” Boyce said. “We had three meetings about this. We didn’t have anybody make any comments about the fire impact fee. We did receive a couple of emails.”

Ralph said the council had a workshop about the fee this summer before it went to the committee for discussion at two more meetings in August. The committee voted 3-0 to approve the fee, which automatically sends the proposal to the consent calendar.

“We had this discussion over a long period of time and didn’t hear from the MBA until the night of the meeting,” Ralph said about the Sept. 1 vote. “And nobody spoke at the meeting (during public comment) about the fee.”

Ralph said she received a voice mail on Sept. 1 from Hoffman but she was tied up in council committee and regular meetings and didn’t return his call until the next day. Boyce said he plans to reach out to Hoffman this week about the issue. Ralph said city staff remains open to discuss with developers about the process of implementing the new fee.

The base fire impact fee for a single-family home will be a one-time cost of about $1,741. Developers are expected to add that cost on to the price of a home. The fee for a new commercial building will be about $1.21 per square foot. The fees will be assessed on new residential or commercial properties and the expansion of existing commercial structures.

The city will collect the fee for the Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority (RFA) through an interlocal agreement. The fire department used to be part of the city until voters in Kent, Covington and Fire District 37 approved the formation of the RFA in 2010. The agency is funded through a property tax levy and a fire benefit charge, a variable rate based on the square footage and the amount of service provided to each house or business. Kent previously funded its fire department through the city’s general fund.

The fees will cover about 30 percent of the total cost of construction of the new stations, fire officials said. About 70 percent would be funded by  residents and businesses in the RFA district. RFA officials asked the city to adopt the new fire impact fee.