The city of Hailey has repeatedly trimmed its budget in recent months in response to changing economic times, consolidating staff positions, foregoing equipment expenditures and switching some personnel to four-day work weeks. Two special election ballot initiatives on Nov. 4 are sure to cause city leaders even more heartburn.
It all started at 4111 Glenbrook Dr. in the South Woodside light industrial zone, where Hailey metalworker Bob Wiederrick is nearing completion of a 2,000-square-foot building on property he has owned for five years. The new building is next door to a shop on the same property where he builds decorative metal fixtures and fire screens. Wiederrick hopes to lease out the new building, which will cost nearly $500,000 to build.
"I can't blacksmith my whole life, and I don't have a retirement plan." he said while taking a break from his blowtorch. "That building next door is it."
Wiederrick made two attempts this year to petition Hailey to repeal development impact fees, which are costing him $7,800 on his development project. On the second attempt he succeeded. Wiedderick gathered more than the required 258 signatures on a petition to call for the special election, including the signatures of two former Hailey Mayors, Al Lindley and Brad Siemer.
Wiederrick also succeeded in calling for a special election on the repeal of business license fees, collected by the city to pay for annual safety inspections. But it is the possible loss of development impact fees that has the city worried.
City Administrator Heather Dawson said the city would lose an estimated $2.5 million in revenue over the next five years from expected development within the city if the ordinance gets repealed. Dawson said that if the repeal effort succeeds, all the money collected since the fee was implemented two years ago—about $242,000—would also have to be returned to developers.
The fees are expected to pay for construction of a new police station, portions of construction costs for two new fire stations, increased trail systems and park acreage, and construction of roundabouts at street corners.
Dawson said the fees are important to accommodate an expected population of 20,000 in Hailey by 2030. The current Hailey population is just over 8,000. Hailey Mayor Rick Davis will hold a public meeting Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. to discuss the significance of the development impact and business license fees to the city budget.
"The development impact fees were put into place two years ago at the request of Hailey residents who wanted to see development in the city pay for itself," Davis said in an interview.
Yet Wiederrick sees it differently.
"The development impact fee was a way for the city to fill its coffers without broad-based, voter approval," he said. "This issue is finally getting the sounding it needs."
Wiedderick said the new fees have "changed the ground rules" regarding his property, which was annexed into the city in the 1970s. He also claims that a retrofit on an existing building can add more transportation impact than does a new building like his, yet is not assessed a fee. He also says new annexations should pay the bulk of impact fees.
"With new annexations, the city can require them to build a fire station," he said.
Wiederrick said he and other property owners in the light industrial area should not have to pay for added fire protection that they don't need.
"We have had one fire in this area in 30 years," he said.
The city expects to collect $326,000 in fees from Old Cutters subdivision, annexed into the city last year. If Quigley Canyon developers are successful in having their property annexed under current development plans, the fees associated with the 372-unit project would bring in $973,000.
Wiederrick also takes issue with the development impact fee's structure with regard to new residential developments, which are not based on building square footage. Under the impact fee ordinance, a single-family, detached dwelling is levied $2,629 per dwelling, regardless of its size. All other housing types are charged $2,010.
"For a million-dollar house, that is about the cost of the front door," Wiederrick said. "For an inexpensive home builder in Woodside, struggling to put tires on his car, it's a different story."
Development impact fees are expected to pay $4.5 million during the first five years of the city's 20-year, $35 million capital improvement plan.
City officials had estimated the fees would bring in $580,000 during the first year, but due to a slowdown in construction, only $242,000 has been billed to developers since the fees went into effect.
"The bulk of our development impact fees come from business development, not residential," Dawson said.
Fees from residential construction totaled $107,900, while $134,000 came from commercial development.
Hailey metalworker Bob Wiederrick has succeeded in forcing the city to hold a special election on development impact fees and business license fees
