COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County commissioners are considering impact fees to help growth outside cities pay for itself.

Impact fees are charged to new development projects to pay for all or a portion of the costs of providing public services to the new development.

In a commissioner meeting Monday, Chairman Chris Fillios said Ada and Canyon counties are considering adopting impact fees. Commissioners Bill Brooks and Leslie Duncan said it will be interesting to watch if — and how — Ada County implements the tool.

According to the American Planning Association, impact fees shift more of the costs of financing public facilities from the general taxpayer to the beneficiaries of those new facilities.

For now, anyway, Kootenai County’s commissioners say they’ll watch and learn from other counties before giving impact fees serious consideration here.

In other business, commissioners looked into board membership of the county’s Airport Advisory Board and Planning and Zoning Commission. Fillios said the county should be seeking people “willing to work” on those boards versus the appointment of board members who adhere to certain political leanings.

Commissioners also renewed the county’s membership in the National Association of Counties (NACo), a lobby group in Washington, D.C., that advocates county priorities in federal policymaking, in addition to providing resources to county governments. NACo has assisted Kootenai County in securing rural school funding, according to Fillios. Every county in Idaho is a member of NACo and the state would lose a seat at the board level if Kootenai dropped out.

“NACo advocates for mental health services at correctional facilities,” Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said, indicating the widespread benefit of Kootenai County’s membership in the organization.