Kalispell City Council meets tonight at 7 p.m. for a work session to discuss road impact fees for new commercial and residential developments.
Members of the Kalispell Impact Fee Advisory Committee will make recommendations as to the dollar amounts the city should charge the new developments for their traffic impacts.
While no formal votes by council are allowed at work sessions, council must make a decision on impact fees soon. With several large commercial and residential developments recently approved in the north end of town, including the Glacier Town Center, if the city wants to collect some fees for road impact and maintenance, it must have the impact fees in place before building permits are requested for those projects. The city already collects impact fees for services like water, sewer, and emergency response; it does not currently get anything from developers for the added traffic impacts these new projects will have on roads. Tonight’s discussion will be a big step toward remedying that situation.