Spokane’s building fees jump again next year as city tries to afford growth

Development fees will significantly increase across Spokane next year, the second phase in a three-year process of making those fees closer to the cost to the city to service new development.

General facilities charges are one-time fees charged to developers or property owners when they first connect to city sewer and water services. The funds raised from these fees must go to improving the actual infrastructure that provides those services, such as water boosting stations.

In 2023, motivated by failing infrastructure in the Latah Valley and a moratorium on new development there, city leaders proposed major updates to these and other development fees. Before then, the fees hadn’t budged in more than 20 years and hadn’t kept up with the cost of infrastructure needed to service a growing population, particularly in the Latah Valley .

Since 2002, the water connection fee was $1,232 and the sewer connection fee has been $2,400 for a 1-inch water pipe or smaller, by far the most common in the city. Charges for both water and sewer connections are calculated based on the size of the water tap pipe.

Changes made in 2023 significantly increased most of the connection fees but also provided relatively cheaper options for 3/4-inch connections, which are the primary size used for homes, and 5/8-inch connections, incentivizing smaller connections.

Though there were initial proposals last year to increase the fees all at once to make up for lost time, fears that this would crater local development and add thousands to housing costs led to a compromise to instead phase-in the increases incrementally between 2024 and 2026.

Alongside that three-year phase-in, the fees will also increase each year based on inflation rates.

Today, 3/4-inch connections cost developers $2,821 in water fees and $4,819 in sewer fees. Starting next year, increases from both inflation – just under 1% – and the next stage of the three-year phase-in mean those same connections will cost $3,582 in water fees and $5,611 in sewer fees.

Different size connections will see different fee increases. A 5/8-inch connection, for instance, will more than double from $834 in water fees and $1,172 for sewer fees this year to $1,683 in water fees and $2,367 in sewer fees next year.

The final major increase in costs will come in 2026. For a 3-inch connection, the cost is estimated to be $5,049 in water fees and $7,100 in sewer fees, though this will be further adjusted for inflation before the start of 2026.

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved a study increasing next year’s general facilities charges by 0.99% based on inflation using the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index.