COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County Commissioners approved Wednesday to send forward a recommendation to impose impact fees on development to support the sheriff’s office, jail accommodations and parks and waterway improvements.

The recommendation will now go to the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

The impact fee plan is based on projections that Kootenai County will grow by more than 50,000 residents and 20,000 homes within the next decade.

Fees would help pay for projects completing two unfinished housing units at the consistently overcrowded jail, as well as expanding the jail’s kitchen and medical facilities.

In order to maintain the current level of law enforcement service, the county needs to hire 29 patrol deputies over the next decade.

Impact fees would help cover the cost of the office space needed to accommodate those new hires, in the form of a substation or an addition to the sheriff’s office.

The fees would total $1,788 per residential unit or 50 cents per non-residential square foot, broken down as follows:

• $523 per residential unit or 23 cents per non-residential square foot for the sheriff’s office, totaling $11.3 million
• $637 per residential unit or 28 cents per non-residential square foot for the county jail, totaling $13.7 million
• $627 per residential unit for Parks and Waterways, totaling $12.7 million

If commissioners ultimately vote to impose impact fees, cities within the county must agree to collect the fees.