For those who do not know, Sultan charges a fee to appeal a poor, or incorrect city decision. This fee is $1,000 plus "direct costs" (which can include the city attorney's fees, and city staff and consultant time. Thus, the final price tag to "participate" in a public process -- attempting to correct a (potential) wrong -- becomes virtually out of reach for anyone except the wealthy (read: developers).
For folks who may be new to Sultan, the 2002 council's goal was to do just that: prevent "regular" folks from "harassing" developers by filing what they defined as "frivolous" appeals. That Council succeeded. As of the date of this report (Feb. 5, 2005), this appeal fee becomes ever-more important, as the city continues to make poor planning decisions, while leaving the appeal fee at this prohibitive, almost punitive, level.
The results of our analysis of appeal fees in cities with a comparable population to Sultan, revealed an average appeal fee of between $239 and $252 (see specific data below).
Our analysis also revealed that only three cities charged fees equivalent, or higher than Sultan's. These are:
- Vancouver (pop. 150,700) = $1,000 fee (however, their fee as listed did not charge "costs," while Sultan's fee structure does include "direct costs."
- Spokane Valley (pop. 82,500) = $1,300
- Battleground (pop. 14,220) = $2,100
|
City (listed in order of population, most-to-least populated) |
Population (Note 1) |
Appeal Fee (Note 2) |
Comment(s) |
|
Colville |
4,965 |
$100 |
|
|
Fife |
4,905 |
600 |
Highest fee of those analyzed |
|
Snoqualmie |
4,785 |
$500 + $100/hour |
|
|
Liberty Lake |
4,640 |
$255 |
|
|
Wapato |
4,525 |
$90 |
Lowest fee of those analyzed |
|
Medical Lake |
4,215 |
$250 |
|
|
Stanwood |
4,190 |
$300 |
|
|
SULTAN |
4,095 |
$1000 + direct costs |
|
|
Ocean Shores |
4,065 |
400 |
|
|
Blaine |
4,025 |
450 |
|
|
DuPont |
3,685 |
350 + Hrg. Examiner Costs |
|
|
Chelan |
3,600 |
135 |
|
|
Montesano |
3,345 |
152 |
|
|
Cornell |
3,190 |
100 |
|
|
Elma |
3,060 |
156 |
|
|
Deer Park |
3,055 |
200 |
ANALYSIS CRITERIA:
- In an effort to compare apples-to-apples, we limited the cities to those that have populations within 1,000 people, either plus or minus, to Sultan's 4,095.
- Sultan's $1,000 fee plus "direct costs" was not included in any averaging.
- We performed two "averages." When we eliminated both the cities with the highest (Fife) and lowest (Wapato) fees, the average fee was $239; the average when those two cities were included, resulted in $252.
NOTES:
(1) Source for Population: Association of Washington Cities' "Washington
City & County Employee 2004 Salary & Benefit Survey" with the
exception of Battleground, which was not contained in this report. The
source for Battleground's population was mrsc.org's city profiles listing,
as it appeared on their website Feb. 4, 2005.
(2) Source for Fees: Association of Washington Cities' 2004 Tax & User Fee Survey, Part II, "Land Use Fees"