City approves fee increase

SANDPOINT — A fee hike for new construction will be phased in over a four-year period according to a compromise between the city and local contractors.

City Council members split over the fees recently as council members Jamie Davis, Stephen Snedden and John Reuter voted for the four-year phase-in of impact fees, and Marsha Ogilvie, Justin Schuck and Carrie Logan voting against the measure.

Mayor Gretchen Hellar broke the deadlock with a vote in favor of the approximately $5,000 fee increase.

The new user facility fee, or NUFF, will raise the cost of water and sewer hook ups from $8,150 to $13,130 over four years, according to the lowest estimates.

The straight-line phase-in solution was a compromise between council members and contractors who said making the up-front NUFF payments before breaking ground would prevent many builders, especially in a lousy economy, from working in Sandpoint.

Contractors met with council members and engineers at two workshops to find how best to adopt the capitalization fees that new users would pay to invest in the city’s existing water and sewer systems.

“It’s more than running lines to homes,” Mayor Gretchen Hellar said.

“It is making sure new homes participate in the costs already paid. They are buying into an asset of the city.”

Builders who attended the workshops agreed in March that a slow, phase-in would be least jolting to buyers and builders.

Council member Justin Schuck said he voted against the fees because they are another hurdle on the road to building affordable housing in Sandpoint, something the city supports.

“On the left side, we’re talking about affordable housing and on the right side, we’re raising fees,” Schuck, who is a contractor, said.

Contractors already pay around $15,000 in fees to be allowed to break ground.

In a few years, he said, “it will be $20,000 for permits to start building in Sandpoint.”

He said that city utilities should be self-supportive through a rate scale.

“I believe utilities should carry themselves and run in the black,” he said.

Hellar said the phase-in, which starts in 2011, is an innovative approach that has its positive points.

It prevents builders from getting immediately walloped with a big increase, she said, and it could spur more people to build this year to save the increased capitalization fees.

“If someone is thinking about building a house, they might rather do it now than three years from now,” she said.