Impact fees limit development
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Editor,
Does Polson really need impact fees?
In the “findings” portion of the proposed draft of Ordinance 661, Sec 6.2(a) you can read the following statement, “The city (of Polson) has experienced an unprecedented rate of new development in recent years increasing the strain on the city’s ability to provide necessary public facilities and services.” Continuing in subsection (d) it further states, “fees are a reasonable method of regulating new development.” The findings are the basis of the city’s argument for imposing impact fees on new development. Are these arguments reasonable?
The city has experienced other high rates of growth, like when the Reservation was opened to white settlement and again in the 1930s when Kerr Dam was under construction. It is simply not correct to state that in recent years there has been an unprecedented rate of development.
The $7,000 in impact fees on every new home, in addition to building permit costs and connection fees have, however, successfully regulated new development. Our construction workers now leave their families in Polson and commute to North Dakota for work in response to a lack of new development. Those workers would agree that the regulating has been extremely successful. The city has dramatically demonstrated that when government adds costs to something, the public produces less of that something — in this case, construction jobs.
Unless the citizens of Polson speak out at the May 7 council meeting when the second and final reading of this new ordinance will occur, impact fees will continue to be imposed on new development, with the predictable result that less new development will occur.
If you are concerned about Polson’s growth, please make your voices heard.
Bob Fulton
Polson
