The city of Olympia was part of a performance audit by the State Auditor on a handful of local governments and how they collect and use impact fees. I won't have time to read the entire report tonight (warning big pdf file), so if anyone else wants to take a crack at it before I get to, have at it.

Sorry for not posting the the entire report on scribd, but for some reason, the publicly paid for report is password protected and won't convert.

Here are some highlights though.

On fire fees:

Olympia’s fire impact fee schedule/calculation does not effectively demonstrate the connection between growth and system improvements. Olympia does not take into account the cost of public facilities necessitated by new development or the availability of other financing.

On park fees:

Olympia may not be spending park impact fees as effectively as it could, based on the results of a citizen survey and based on other cities’ use of multiple park zones.

• Olympia should consider removing the “one-half to one mile” and “10- to 20-minute walk” from its definition of a “Neighborhood Park.”
• Olympia should consider dividing the City into two park zones to demonstrate a clear relationship between where impact fees are collected and spent. Two zones for park impact fees would appear to be reasonable, as the City is approximately six miles across.