Opinion ID: 2613343
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Agreement To Fund a Capital Improvement

Text: Trimen next argues that KCC 19.38 violates RCW 82.02.020 because it bypasses any developer participation in deciding the capital improvement to be funded by the fees. RCW 82.02.020(1) provides that [t]he payment [of fees] may only be expended to fund a capital improvement agreed upon by the parties to mitigate the identified, direct impact. (Italics ours.) The statute does not define agreement. KCC 19.38.070 provides in part: The fee so collected shall be appropriated only for acquisition and development of open space, park sites and recreational facilities within the park service area wherein the proposed subdivision is located. Such acquisition and development shall be consistent with any applicable Community Plan. Clerk's Papers, at 73. [6] While there is no explicit provision in KCC 19.38 to form an agreement between the parties to fund a particular capital improvement, KCC 19.38 does require that the acquisition and development of open space and recreational facilities be within the park service area where the subdivision is located in order to benefit the particular subdivision. For example, pursuant to the County's identification of a shortage of tennis courts in the Woodinville area, the funds collected for Winchester Hills I were allocated for the development of tennis courts in a park within Winchester Hills' park service area. In Henderson Homes, Inc. v. Bothell, 67 Wn. App. 196, 834 P.2d 1071 (1992), rev'd, 124 Wn.2d 240, 877 P.2d 176 (1994), Judge Agid stated in her dissent that Bothell violated RCW 82.02.020 because it approached these funds as a general revenue source for funding park improvements, and not as a method for `fund[ing] a capital improvement agreed upon by the parties to mitigate the identified, direct impact' of the project on which the fees were imposed. Henderson Homes, 67 Wn. App. at 213 (Agid, J., dissenting) (quoting RCW 82.02.020(1)). On appeal, we likewise concluded that Bothell was spending the developers' impact fees for general park use, rather than to mitigate site-specific impacts as required by RCW 82.02.020. Henderson Homes, 124 Wn.2d at 249. Contrary to Bothell's practice of using the collected fees to pay for park-related costs throughout the city in a manner totally unrelated to the plat upon which they were imposed, King County requires that such fees be used within the park service area. KCC 19.38.070.