Quick Summary: Take action to help schools before August 12. Charge developers for schools needed to serve new development and prevent over $7,000,000 in new taxes (email below).
In July, the Enumclaw School District’s staff made a political recommendation to discount the allowable amount they can collect from land developers for new school construction (developer school impact fee) by a whopping 50%.
The District estimated new schools will cost at least $28,000 per new house built. They then determined under state law that the cities of Black Diamond (and Enumclaw) are allowed to collect
from developers over $17,900 per new house. Unfortunately, when Black Diamond’s Ten Trails development was approved by the City Council in 2011, the maximum developer school fee for it was capped at $12,453.
The Enumclaw School District should urge Black Diamond to collect the full fee allowed by law, or the Ten Trails cap, whichever is applicable. Our students, and our taxpayers, need those funds. The money would directly help students and better their education. However, the School District asked the City for only $8,900 per new house built in the district, and only $6,282 for multi-family residences.
For schools, developers should pay their full share. Developers can contribute more to the school district rather than pocket that money as profits, so that schools will be built when needed for the children in the community.
Every dollar that is not collected in impact fees must be paid by taxpayers instead. That is why land development impact fee ordinances are often referred to as taxpayer relief ordinances. For every dollar not collected from developer school fees,
the risk to our students and schools - the risk of voters rejecting a tax increase for new schools - increases.
We did the math: By 2025, Black Diamond’s “Ten Trails” alone expects to grow by 2,352 new housing units. Based on current estimates of new single family vs multi-family units, the difference between the allowable development fee in Ten Trails and the School District’s recommendation is
$6,427,800.
(Sadly, if the 2011 agreement had not set caps, the amount that could be collected is $20,000,000. Even that still leaves taxpayers footing a large bill when tax bond time comes.)
Since additional new units in Black Diamond are expected outside of Ten Trails that are unconstrained by the 2011 cap, well over $7M in allowable developer school fees may not be collected over the next five years. If you add the hundreds of units expected in Enumclaw, the amount transferred unnecessarily to taxpayers exceeds $10,000,000. (Data Source: Enumclaw School 6-year capital plan passed July 20, 2020)
Divided by voters in the Enumclaw School District, that is about $530 per voter. After 2025, more building is expected with up to 5 additional new schools needed. The precedent set now will also affect those future taxes.
We can fix this by acting prior to August 12, and no later than the Black Diamond Council decision date of August 20th.
We recommend that in support of students, you
contact Enumclaw School District Board Members. Email: Jennifer Kent
sjkent@q.com, Bryan Stanwood
bryan_stanwood@enumclaw.wednet.edu, Tyson Gamblin
tysongamblin@gmail.com, Jennifer Watterson
Jennifer@northback.com) and offer the following comments:
1. Voter support for School Bond Issues is higher when land developers pay their fair share of the costs of building new schools to support new development.
2. Developers should be required to pay as much as possible for the costs of new school construction. In Black Diamond, developers are causing all of the new school needs we will have.
3. The City has the legal authority to charge a full impact fee and the School District should not recommend special discounts for land developers.
4. The District should ask the City of Black Diamond to collect the maximum legally supported land development school impact fee.
5. The Board's July 20 suggestion of a 50% discount amounts to shooting our schools in the foot. The cost to taxpayers is at least $6,000,000 and likely tens of millions of dollars. The Board should not recommend reducing developer fees. That is a city council decision because the cities are the ones permitting the growth.
6. Black Diamond City Council should collect the maximum fee from developers of $17,900 (less a 5% discount for legal cushion), and $12,453 where limited by previous agreements, per single family home.