By Lindsay Peyton

Highline Public Schools is asking developers to help cover some of the costs they create when they pave the way for new families to move into the district.

Duggan Harman, chief of staff and finance, explained that the district has proposed asking the City of Burien to collect “impact fees” from new developments.

“Voters don’t want Highline Schools to go to them first for funding,” he said. “They want to make sure we have exhausted all of our resources and that developers are paying for the impact of their developments.”

The proposed fee for a single-family residence would be $7,528 and $6,691 for a multi-family dwelling.

Harman explained that a number of other cities already have impact fees in place.

“We have an obligation to serve all students, no matter if they move into existing houses or new construction,” Harman said. “More development means more students. The developers should have to pay for some amount of the impact they are bringing in.”

Harman said that the fees would be used toward capital expenses, specifically for construction of new schools and repairs and additions to existing campuses.

“In a lot of ways, it’s in the developers’ best interest to have high quality schools,” he said.

Harman added that the fees will not offset the funds identified as necessary in the upcoming $299.85 million bond.

The fees could, however, result in smaller bond proposals in the future.

“The district has not passed a bond in 10 years,” Harman said. “We have significant capital needs. The majority falls on the taxpayers. Impact fees could limit that affect. We’re asking developers to pay their fair share.”

The city of Burien tabled the discussion of the proposed fees during its regular meeting on Oct. 3 – and plans to reopen the discussion in its next gathering on Monday, Oct. 17.

Chip Davis, the city’s community development director, explained the fees would only applied to new construction.

“The whole idea of impact fees is premised on the belief that growth should pay for the impacts associated with growth -- at least a proportionate share of that,” he said. “This is just one way of doing some advanced planning to insure we are addressing our infrastructure needs going out into the future.”

Denise Stiffarm, partner with Pacifica Law Group, provides legal council to Highline Schools. She explained to the city council members how the impact fees would be determined.

The formula is part of the King County School Impact Fee Ordinance, which was adopted in 1991 and uses a “student generation rate” to identify how many children will be added to the district based on the type of residence.

“It’s nothing new that Highline created,” Stiffarm said. “It follows an adopted, well-tested formula.”

The fee formula also includes a credit for state funding and taxes that a new homeowner will pay toward the capital bond.

“You avoid a double charge essentially,” Stiffarm said. “The resulting fee is then reduced by 50 percent.”

She said the final costs are similar to what is being charged in Federal Way.

Council member Debi Wagner cautioned the rest of the council about enforcing the fees.

“We’re kind of a middle man,” she said. “We’re collecting the fees from things going on in the city and giving it to education. The responsibility for education has always been on the state and the local district. Cities don’t really get involved.”

Wagner added that she was not sure that the city should be collecting fees for education.

“I don’t know if that’s an appropriate thing for the city to be involved in,” she said. “I have a concern for collecting the money for a number of reasons. It creates more staff time and more city business involvement in something we’re not really responsible for.”

Council member Austin Bell supported the ordinance. “We must prepare infrastructure for growth that is coming and this is a mechanism for doing that,” he said.

Residents attending the council meeting also weighed in on both sides of the issue.

Burien resident Eric Stahlfield took issue with the way the ordinance is worded. “It appears to be overly broad,” he said. “It’s ambiguous. It’s burdensome, and I suspect it will lead to a lot of litigation.”

He also said the fees were too high. “It’s not trying to make Burien any more attractive or bring more people here,” he said. “This seems to me to be a wrong balance of interest.”

Rose Clark, who served on Highline’s 40-person Capital Facilities Advisory Committee, implored the city council to approve the ordinance.

“Think about our schools; think about our education system,” she said. “Think about our students and pass this.”

For more information, visit http://burienwa.gov.