MOSES LAKE — The decades-long debate over fire impact fees did not reach a conclusion at Tuesday’s city council meeting after a technical error forced the council to table the ordinance yet again.

Fire impact fees would impose a charge on new development per square foot to support fire service needs stretched by that development, with a rate schedule based on the type of development, whether residential, commercial, industrial or other.

Most recently, the issue has been considered by the full city council three times since September 2019. Each time, the issue was tabled without a decision from the council, which had asked for more time to consider the fee and possible modifications or alternatives.

Since the last time the issue was reviewed by the council in November, a Fire Impact Fee Sub-committee has met three times since to discuss the viability of a fire impact fee or any alternatives.

That committee was made up of then-Mayor Karen Liebrecht, Fire Chief Brett Bastian, Barry Sterner of Genever Financial, Mark Fancher of Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Ranch & Home, Brant Mayo of the Grant County Economic Development Council, Brian Thoreson of Hayden Homes, and Debra Graser of Allstate Insurance.

After months of review, the committee was expected to present the results of its discussions at Tuesday’s meeting before the council voted on impact fees. The council chambers were packed by an unusually large crowd Tuesday, many of whom had attended to see how the council would vote on this issue.

But city officials said Tuesday that they had forgotten to add the impact fee to the city’s comprehensive plan, a requirement before the council could vote to approve it. Officials indicated that it could take months before that process was concluded, but did not elaborate.

The unexpected delay did not end the debate. Interim City Manager Kevin Fuhr presented a synopsis of the committee’s findings Tuesday, including lowering the proposed rates for industrial development and multi-family apartment complexes.

In short, while some developers and city officials appeared to be finding common ground, the committee “was not necessarily in favor of impact fees, and they’d like the council to look at alternatives,” Fuhr said.

Critics, particularly in the home building industry, have argued that the impact fees would stunt growth in the community by raising the cost of new construction and pricing buyers out of the home market.

“Care must be taken to make sure there aren’t unintended consequences in the housing market, such as increased home costs leading to increased pressure and rising home values, and existing homes due to overall housing inventory,” said Doug Robins, a Moses Lake real estate agent.

The primary alternative suggested by business interest groups: going to voters for a sales tax increase.

“It’s much more sustainable, it’s predictable, and does anyone here know what 0.2 percent sales tax generates?” asked Fancher during public testimony.

$1.6 million in the last year, city staff answered.

“That’s substantially more than any of these impact fees,” Fancher added. “Substantially.”

However, a sales tax could be an uncertain prospect, Fuhr said Tuesday. In the last two years, sales taxes have increased 0.5 percent for Moses Lake residents, most recently with November’s passage of the 0.3 percent law and justice tax, Fuhr noted.

Even if passage were assured, it would take over a year before the city saw any revenue from a new sales tax, Fuhr said.

“We’ve got fire facility needs now, and with some of the growth we’ve got going on right now, waiting a year and a half, the city could lose the opportunity,” Fuhr said.

Other alternatives suggested included lowering existing park impact fees to make up for fire impact fees, or tweaking the rate structure of the proposed fire impact fees further.

As the situation stood, Fuhr recommended that the city implement the fire impact fee as proposed, with the intent to repeal it if a sales tax passed a vote of the people next November.

That compromise did not appear to satisfy the concerns of Theresa Sullivan, CEO of Samaritan Healthcare. That organization has been moving forward with plans to build a new 50-bed hospital, a development of about 170,000 square feet.

It’s a massive, multi-million dollar project, and if the fire impact fee were implemented as proposed, it would become about $750,000 more expensive, Sullivan said.

“If we have to have that kind of fee, at almost three-quarters of a million dollars, that potentially means that we are going to have to go back and look at the size of the project,” Sullivan said.

Council members have previously suggested exempting the hospital from the impact fees, but Sullivan said that she’s since learned that’s unlikely to happen.

“What I’ve understood since then is that the reality of the hospital being exempted is pretty slim because the dollars are so big and they have to be paid, my understanding was, still to the fire department potentially by the city,” Sullivan said.

“Please, consider the impact that it would have,” Sullivan concluded.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.