I would hope that the Planning Commission would also meet with others, not just builders and neighborhood associations.
The City has always held developer impact fees well below the cost to serve growth. It has also eliminated Fire impact fees, which could have paid for some of the equipment needs and the proposed 5th fire station on Yelm Highway.
But builders will give sob stories about the high cost of developing. Indeed the costs ARE high, but that is because the costs ARE high. To build water, sewer, park and road facilities is expensive, and all of these costs are caused by growth and should be paid for by growth. Otherwise those of us who paid for the existing system will have to subsidize growth.
Estimates of the costs of growth in excess of what is paid for by developers range as high as $80,000 per home. See Paying For Prosperity: Brookings Institution, and The Cost of Growth: Eban Fodor
This creates a very real housing cost challenge -- but not one that should be solved by forcing existing residents to subsidize developers who want to build new homes to serve new residents.
We have very expensive sidewalk, sewer, and other deficiencies caused by new development not making the needed investments to make their developments walkable, and to provide other needed facilities. The City of Olympia spends $1 million per year on sidewalk retrofits. We should not compound this deficiency by letting new homes be built without complete streets.
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