Chapter § 7.1 Introduction

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§7.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with development exactions and impact fees, which, broadly speaking, occur when a local government exacts a property interest or monetary payment as a condition of approval of real property development. These exactions and fees can take various forms, including dedication of land or conveyance of easements for trails, open space, parks, roads, or some other public purpose; dedication (and installation) of road, utility, park, and other improvements necessitated by the new development; payment of fees in lieu of such dedication; or payment of fees for financing system improvements relating to new development. Although a species of development conditions and mitigation measures that local government imposes on new development to mitigate its impacts, development exactions and impact fees are subject to statutory and constitutional limits and requirements not otherwise applicable to more garden-variety zoning and permit conditions; hence their special treatment in the law and in this chapter.

(1) Scope

Although the dividing line between exactions and conditions and the law applicable to each is not always clear, the scope of this chapter is limited to legal issues as they pertain to conditions that are considered to be an exaction or impact fee. Other types of conditions that may be placed on development, and the legal issues pertaining to them, are addressed in other chapters. For example, conditions imposed pursuant to the State Environmental Policy Act are discussed in Volume 5, Chapter 14 (State Environmental Policy Act—Programmatic/Planned Actions/SEPA-GMA), and Volume 6, Chapter 1 (State Environmental Policy Act—Project Level Review). Volume 5, Chapter 19 (Regulatory Taking and Inverse Condemnation), of this deskbook contains a broader discussion of regulatory takings and inverse condemnation than that provided here.

(2) Analytical framework

Although local governments possess broad authority to impose conditions on development of land, their authority to require or impose development exactions and impact fees is severely constrained by statutory and constitutional limitations. Of these limitations, the most important, and most often litigated in Washington state, are the prohibition on taxes, fees, and developments in RCW 82.02.020 and the state and federal constitutional prohibitions on uncompensated government takings.

The discussion in this chapter, although not comprehensive, is organized...