Bonney Lake Lowers Impact Fees to Encourage Local Development

At the regular Bonney Lake city council meeting on April 24, two ordinances passed that will encourage future development with lower impact fees.

Afterand spending more time on it in study session, the Bonney Lake council passed a measure that will .

The decision was met with applause from developers in the courtroom who were there to vocalize their frustrations with the charges that hold them back from building in Bonney Lake. The measure is also supported by the Bonney Lake Chamber of Commerce ().

“[Bonney Lake] is one of the three worst areas in the Metro Seattle region to build in – that’s the reputation,” said Scott Haas, from The People's Builder in Gig Harbor. “It’s mostly been an expense issue. If there’s anything you can do to lower those fees… we builders would certainly appreciate that.”

The ordinance passed, which will allow for a temporary traffic impact fee reduction of almost 25 percent for residential projects, or approximately $3,600 for each evening rush hour trip the development would create.

Councilmember Mark Hamilton was the lone ‘no’ vote. Hamilton cited “basic economics” – money saved by developers would eventually have be paid by the citizens, he said.

“This is taxation on the existing tax payers,” Hamilton said.

The city council also unanimously voted to limit Bonney Lake’s sewer system development charges for changes to an existing space. Now, Bonney Lake will collect no more than three sewer development charges – an initial one from the business and two subsequent.