COEUR d'ALENE - One down.

The Kootenai County commissioners approved the first intergovernmental agreement this week authorizing the county to collect impact fees for a taxing district, an arrangement that took years to prepare.

The county will collect impact fees for Spirit Lake Fire Department as soon as possible, according to the county legal staff.

Commissioner Todd Tondee, who has driven the effort to establish impact fees to help offset the cost of new growth, said this is a positive sign.

"It's the first one, so it's starting the process," Tondee said after the commissioners approved the agreement 3-0 on Tuesday at the administration building.

Impact fees, collected only from builders of new development, will help fund capital improvement projects for the fire district that address demand from population increases.

The county commissioners have held hearings and meetings for years with taxing districts and cities to establish impact fees collected and distributed by the county.

Spirit Lake Fire Chief John DeBernardi said the district would prefer to comment later on the benefits of the fee collection, when staff receives confirmation of the agreement.

Tondee said the county has submitted intergovernmental agreements to several other fire and highway districts.

"We're just waiting for them to review them," he said.

The county commissioners adopted impact fee rates last year. For Spirit Lake Fire District, the maximum allowable fee per residential unit is $2,254. For non-residential, the maximum fee is $1.07 per square foot.

The county may retain an administrative fee of 4 percent of all district impact fees it collects.

The agreement will be effective through the end of this September, with an automatic renewal of one year.

Counties are authorized by state statute to collect impact fees on behalf of taxing districts.

Tondee said the county is only currently pursuing intergovernmental agreements with taxing districts, as some cities wanted to wait and observe the success of the fee collection.

That doesn't mean the county will never pursue impact fee agreements with cities, Tondee added.

"The bright part is this is just one more tool to have the growth pay a proportionate share - not all, not none, but a proportionate share," Tondee said. "That's what this tool is for."