City Council to vote on fire impact fee

The Kent City Council is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to implement a fire impact fee on new development to help pay for additional fire stations and boost firefighter response times.

The City Council’s three-member Economic and Community Development Committee on Monday unanimously approved the fee, which will be voted on by the full seven-member council at its next meeting, 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority (RFA) officials approached the city about charging the fire impact fee to add service and improve response times from its eight stations. Increased population and traffic congestion have slowed fire vehicles serving the Kent area.

“Our level of service is struggling,” RFA Capt. Larry Rabel told the committee during Monday’s meeting. “We’re substandard. We are continuing to slide backward.”

Rabel said the population in the RFA has grown significantly from 700 people per square mile in 1970 to 3,000 people per square mile today. The RFA’s call volume has also increased. It is up 12 percent from a year ago, Rabel said.

“The growth, what’s happened in the past, is not changing,” he said.

The RFA plans to build stations on the East Hill at Southeast 217th Street and 108th Avenue Southeast, in the Valley at 407 Washington Avenue and on the West Hill at South 231st Way and Riverview Boulevard. Construction is expected between 2019 and 2026.

The agency also proposes to close Station 75, 15635 S.E. 272nd St., in order to move the station westward, closer to Kent, and open another station in the southern part of Covington. Those two new stations would open in 2032 and 2033.

“Fire impact fees will be there to help us to support our capital plan, our capital investment, because, quite frankly, one of the key things this year is that the RFA can’t afford to catch up from problems from the past, at the same time trying to maintain services with the impacts of the future,” Rabel said.

The fees will not cover the total cost of construction of the new stations, Rabel said. Between 71 and 72 percent would be funded by current residents in the district.

“The (fire impact) fee amount we would be looking for in development in the future out of the Kent jurisdiction would be about $21 million or about 24 percent of what we need and would be the fair share of that new development coming in and paying their way,” Rabel said.

The RFA is working with the city of Covington to impose a similar impact fee there, which would provide another 5 to 6 percent of the revenue needed for new construction, Rabel said.

The base fire impact fee for a single-family home would be a one-time cost of about $1,741. Developers would add that cost on to the price of a home. The fee for a new commercial building would be about $1.21 per square foot.

Rabel said the fees will be assessed on new residential or commercial properties and the expansion of existing commercial structures but not the additions on single-family homes.

“If a resident wanted to add on, it’s not going to change fire services,” he said. “Just because you added on to a home doesn’t mean you are going to necessarily add another person.”

Fees will be reduced for the addition of accessory dwellings, such as mother-in-law units, built on property with an existing residence.

Rabel said the proposed fee structure does not include a reduction of fees for affordable housing developments.

The fees would be reviewed annually by both the RFA and the City Council, although Rabel said he doesn’t expect it to change significantly.

The cities of Auburn, Renton, Maple Valley and Tukwila already have fire impact fees.

Kent already charges a school impact fee to developers to help pay for the cost of building new schools to handle increases in population. The city also recently started to charge developers a transportation impact fee to help pay for road improvements.

“When we have schools that are bursting at the seams because there are too many students, you have to build new schools to accommodate that,” City Councilman Dennis Higgins said during Monday’s committee meeting. “When we have more people living in Kent and Covington than we did 20 years ago, we can’t get by with the same fire department infrastructure. We have to have more – more station, more personnel and more equipment. That’s why we have a capital plan. That’s why the RFA has a capital plan, and that is why there is a need for these fees.”

Higgins said the fire impact fee is the most logical way to fund the new facilities.

“I don’t like imposing fees,” he said. “I don’t like raising fees, but in this case there is a clear connection between the fee and a needed public service in the form of additional fire district capital facilities. … I urge everyone’s support of this.”

If approved by the council, the ordinance will also authorize the mayor to sign an interlocal agreement with the RFA.

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.