Reason Prevails

At the end of last week the fire district published a revised Capital Facilities Plan with marked down mitigation fees reducing the total revenue projection to $11,446,217 from a previous $23,903,505. [This reduced request is also based on growth Alternative Y that anticipates 17 thousand more people in the fire district by 2031.] This new amount would finance the cost of two new fire stations and two new fire engines and aid cars. The figures below represent discounting to nearly 48 percent of the original requests.

Adjusted Concurrency Mitigation Fees by Land Use

Land Use	Dec. 31, 2008 Concurrency Mitigation Fee Per Unit of Development	Unit of Development	Adjusted Concurrency Mitigation Fee per Unit of Development
Residential
Singe Family and Duplex	$2,078.45	Per dwelling unit	$995.27
Multi-Family	$2,983.70	Per dwelling unit	$1,428.75
Non-Residential
Hotel/Motel/Resort	$7.68	Per square foot	$3.68
Medical
Nursing Home	$28.67	Per square foot	$13.73
Medical-Dental	$12.41	Per square foot	$5.94
Commercial
Office	$3.79	Per square foot	$1.81
Retail	$2.95	Per square foot	$1.41
Leisure Failicites	$1.66	Per square foot	$0.79
Restaurant/Lounge	$3.75	Per square foot	$1.80
Industrial/Manufacturing	$0.89	Per square foot	$0.43
Institutions
Churches/Non-Profit	$1.21	Per square foot	$0.58
Education	$2.07	Per square foot	$0.99
Special Public Facilities	$4.23	Per square foot	$2.03

Adapted from Table 41 of NWFRS Capital Facilities Plan

The district also reduced the amount of a bond issue required to finance upgrading existing stations from $4.050 million to $3.400 million

The purpose of this exercise is to gain the approval of Whatcom County as part of the county's updated Growth Management Plan. In that regard the district's plan ends with a statement of financial feasibility of interest Birch Bay residents:

The probable sources of revenue described above indicate that it is financially feasible to build and operate two new stations {with engines and aid vehicles} during the period 2008-2031 if Whatcom County implements the district's Concurrency Mitigation Fee Program. If Whatcom County does not implement the Concurrency Mitigation Fee Program it would not be financially feasible for the district to pay for capital needs to build and operate two new stations {with engines and aid vehicles} during the period 2008-2031 necessary to serve urban growth in the Birch Bay UGA. [Emphasis added.]

Of course, with developers now struggling to survive, this Projection Y stuff is yammer. But the state's Growth Management Act requires a plan, so plan we must.

ak