Dear Mayor and City Council
Your proposal for fee updates really needs more work, i.e. a cost recovery analysis for each permit type. The permit system needs to be financially self-supporting and not have development applications funded by existing ratepayers and taxpayers (as they obviously currently are).
The public also needs to know well in advance what further increases in sewer and Storm water fees you plan to impose in the next year due to the findings of 2 studies you contracted, that showed the $120 million needed to fix serious problems in our sewage treatment plant and Storm water systems.
I suggest you create a citizen committee to present some reality to the public response you will get with the current fees (voted on Monday) and the future fees you will impose in the next few years to pay for your failures. You might want to look at Hospital cost increases, school financial shortfalls, and real cost of living increases here in Anacortes. Where are impact fees for affordable housing in this?
What I see the City government doing is this! Pushing increases in population (for more taxes) by putting ADUs everywhere possible and avoiding telling your constituents about the lack of infrastructure and its high cost. You refuse to include middle housing unit numbers in the population count that will make the lack of proper infrastructure in the future worse. How can we believe you about your finances?
And now you want to increase permitting costs, and increase appeal costs to the point and making it more difficult. You have a large staff whose job is to work for its citizens. What do they do? You don’t need outside Stormwater expertise as you have designated staff for that. Same goes for critical areas. When I was a developer and builder here (since 1980) the staff did quite well keeping us in line because we builders cooperated, used Conditional permitting, and worked with neighbors to help flesh out any issues so that I could present a “complete” permit application. Few delays if application is complete. It’s not that hard.
Further, as to Permit PLN you need to be aware that if you chose to have local appeals to the Hearing Examiner the cost to a concerned neighbor should not be set at a level (undetermined in advance) that discourages an appeal to the Hearing Examiner. Finally, there really does need to be a definition as to what winning means, e.g. what if the HE just adds a condition that clarifies or assists a neighbor-is that winning? what if a court overturns a HE decision – is that winning? e.g. if the City loses should the appellant’s legal fees be reimbursed (so that both sides have skin in the proceedings?
Without clear definitions now you will most likely face significant legal bills later.
Please do not put more onus on local taxpayers to fix these long term problems. More people who come here, and they will, will only add to these problems. How about taking care of us who already are here?
Try facing these issues in a setting that includes our citizens, not just developers, and listen! We citizens love our town, especially its natural beauty. Slow down!
Thank you.
Bill Turner
