School impact fees on the east side of Vancouver may drop drastically for some developers if the city council approves a slate of changes to the comprehensive plan and zoning code.
School impact fees for multifamily housing developments within the district would halve, from $7,641 per unit to $3,753 per unit. The fees for single family housing units would increase to $6,432 per home, up from $6,100.
The drop in fees will hopefully help drive some more affordable, multifamily housing development on the east side of the city, according to the discussion at Monday’s city council workshop.
“This is a huge step forward, because it felt like under the old impact fees, it pushed residential density to the Vancouver school district and punished the Evergreen school district,” said City Councilor Ty Stober. “It felt like we were pushing poverty to the west side of our city, based on the old impact fees.”
School impact fees for development within the Vancouver Public Schools boundary are $2,881 for single-family homes and $2,382 per unit for multifamily homes. The impact fees are proposed by the school districts and approved by the city.
School impact fees are costs borne by housing developers, designed to offset the strain of more people moving to an area. New housing brings with it more kids enrolling in public schools, which means school districts need more money to keep up with growth.
Developers pay a one-time school impact fee for each new residence, similar to the system that also exists for park and traffic impact fees.
The new fee structure is included in Evergreen Public Schools’ 2019-2025 Capital Facilities Plan. The formula used to calculate the fees depends on a range of variables, including the cost per student, projected enrollment, construction costs and existing bond and levy rates.
This isn’t the first time that school impact fees for multifamily developments have swung dramatically in the Evergreen district. In January 2016, school impact fees for multifamily developments nearly tripled from $2,678 to the current $7,641 per unit.
At Monday’s workshop, City Councilor Erik Paulsen asked Bryan Snodgrass, Vancouver’s principal planner, to review the formula being used to calculate the fees.
“There was a dramatic increase the last go-around, and now we have a dramatic decrease,” Paulsen said. “How do we smooth the curve out a little bit?”
“Permitting fees are one of the main drivers of affordability or lack thereof,” Paulsen continued. “If it recently doubled and now we’re halving it, something is wrong with the process.”
Dozens of other changes
School impact fees aren’t the only changes to the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning map currently on the table.
Some revisions would apply across Vancouver, like a revision to requirements for mobile homes in single-family zones so as not to prohibit accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. Another citywide change would reduce the minimum parking requirements for affordable housing projects or housing designed for seniors or disabled people.
Other proposed revisions involve specific sites. A zoning change at the former Warrior Field site along Fourth Plain Boulevard — from Urban High Density Residential to Community Commercial — would allow for construction of the Fourth Plain Commons, a mixed-use building with 11,000 square feet of first-floor community facilities below 65 to 80 affordable housing units.
A full list of the proposed changes to the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning can be found at Vancouver’s website.
The city council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed changes at its meeting on Nov. 18.
