Two changes to the school impact fees in Snoqualmie, a fee increase and payment option change, were approved on Monday, Aug. 22 at the Snoqualmie City Council meeting.

School impact fees are collected from developers of new houses to help school districts keep up with the growth that new homes bring. When a developer builds a house, they submit a permit application and pay the impact fee. The city then collects that fee and passes it along to the school district through King County.

The first change that the council made was creating an option to delay the payment of impact fees by developers. The ordinance adds the option to pay the fee at the time of final inspection rather than the time of application.

However the ordinance limits the deferral of the payment to only 18 months after the building permit is issued to the developer and only allows the developer to delay the payment for 20 single- family homes.

The council also approved the school district’s proposed impact fees for 2017. The school impact fees are calculated based on the Snoqualmie School District’s Capital Facilities Plan and are approved by the city council. Starting on Jan. 1, 2017, the school impact fees will change from $8,490.86 to $10,051.78 for single family residences and from $1,657.61 to $1,290.75 for multi-family residences.

Ryan Stokes, assistant superintendent of finance and operations for the Snoqualmie Valley School District, said the fees are based on a multitude of factors including state funding, student generation and facility construction costs. He explained that the reason the single family residence cost went up is because more students are being generated from those types of developments rather than multi-family residences. Along with the construction at Mount Si High School, the district is also planning for a seventh elementary school.

“It’s always a combination of the factors of why things are changing,” he said. “We looked at elementary seven and the cost of the high school… Cost of the facility increased and more students are being generated.”

Stokes explained that the ordinance giving developers an option to delay payment until final inspection is more for the smaller developments rather than the larger ones due to a 20-house limit on the payment deferral. Only a partial amount of the fees paid to the district will be delayed.

“It kind of hurts the schools because they aren’t getting the money as soon. The schools would argue that if we are not getting the money before the schools are occupied we can’t build the classrooms for those kids,” he said. “The compromise is the city allowing deferral only for 20 residence per applicants.”

Stokes also said that the school district is using impact fees to increase student capacity during the construction of the high school by purchasing portables so classes will not be affected by construction.

“It’s a growing area and we need to continue to provide those classroom spaces for the kids,” he said.