The Ridgefield City Council on Monday, June 23, approved a new long-range transportation plan that will shape how the city plans infrastructure based on projected growth for the next two decades.
Alongside the plan, the council adopted a modest increase to transportation impact fees (TIFs) required from developers.
The updated Transportation Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) is a required element of Ridgefield’s broader Comprehensive Plan under Washington’s Growth Management Act. Every eligible city and county in the state is required to include a CFP that identifies existing public infrastructure, forecasts future needs, and lays out a six-year financial plan for how to meet those demands. In Ridgefield’s case, the transportation component also doubles as the city’s 2025–2030 Transportation Improvement Program, listing the streets, corridors and projects needed to accommodate expected growth.
This latest update expands the CFP through 2045 and introduces several changes, including new proposed road alignments, the removal of routes deemed infeasible, and the addition of multimodal trails with a transportation focus. These “transportation trails” are now eligible for funding through TIFs due to a 2023 change in state law.
The plan also includes long-term infrastructure concepts including a potential Ridgefield/Interstate 5 South Connector, an extension of South 35th Avenue into the Gee Creek Plateau and new overpasses north and south of Pioneer Street. Some of those corridors remain in study phases, with placeholder references rather than specific alignments.
Another major update involves how the city will assess impact fees going forward.
TIFs are one-time charges applied to new developments based on how much vehicle traffic that development is expected to generate. The revenue helps fund public road infrastructure required by new growth. A new lookup table included in the plan is meant to streamline the process by letting staff calculate fees based on land use and trip generation estimates, removing the need for consultants and making the process more predictable for developers.
On Monday, the council had to choose from three updated fee structures, each with tradeoffs. Option 1, the base scenario, increases the citywide TIFs from $545.81 per daily trip to $583.31, a 7% increase. This version removes most short collector roads from the fee program, cuts the share of funding allocated to trails from 10% to 5%, and excludes a future corridor project along North 10th Street and 20th Street that hasn’t yet been fully scoped.
Option 2 kept the same exclusions but restored the full 10% trail funding and added short collector roads. That would have raised the rate 29%, to $703.08 per daily trip.
Option 3 included all of the above plus the North 10th and 20th corridor, for a 41% increase of $769.45.
While several councilmembers voiced support for investing more in trails and future corridors, the group ultimately chose the most incremental option. Councilor Rian Davis, who has been a vocal supporter of trails, made the motion for Option 1, citing the need to pace the city’s approach.
“I definitely think we need to start moving things in a direction to recover costs and charge what is the reality of these projects,” Davis said. “But also not hinder development … I think we, as a council, have valued escalating stuff as opposed to just ripping off the band-aid.”
Davis added that Option 1 still accounts for real cost increases and covers the city’s current projects while allowing flexibility to scale up in the future.
“If staff came back in a year or two with a plan that needed the money from a trails perspective and the collectors, I’d be interested in bumping up,” he said. “But I think it’s premature to go for that now.”
Councilmember Clyde Burkle cast the lone vote against the motion. Burkle and councilors Lee Wells and Meghan Hamilton acknowledged that cost increases for developers could create barriers for local business owners already facing mounting costs.
“When they had a budget for putting the building together, they were so far over budget they could be underwater,” Wells said, recalling a conversation with a business owner. “... We’re raising them rates and we’re pricing these small businesses out of our community.”
Others on the council acknowledged the tension between funding necessary infrastructure and keeping Ridgefield attractive to small businesses and homebuyers. Several members expressed interest in revisiting the fees annually, a provision that was ultimately added to the motion.
The ordinance was the final item presented to the Ridgefield City Council by Public Works Director Chuck Green, who was slated to retire on June 30.
