The Woodland City Council held a workshop to discuss the large costs traffic impact fees bring to businesses seeking to develop in the city during their Monday, March 16, meeting.
One of the main focuses for the discussion is the proposed Paddle House Taproom at the corner of Goerig Street and Lewis River Road. The project is now more uncertain than ever as its developer seeks relief from more than $255,000 in city traffic impact fees, according to the March 11 edition of The Reflector.
Woodland Mayor Todd Dinehart said that Woodland’s impact fee per trip is $8,400 while La Center’s per-trip fee is $7,500.
“Ridgefield is $599 per trip,” Dinehart said of Ridgefield’s traffic impact fees. “So you say, ‘OK, wait a minute, why is there’s so low?’ Costco, In-N-Out Burger, they have all paid all of that development and they just recently gone in and now lowered it because they’re saying, ‘Hey, we got this big development. We got this money. Now I can lower it down to $599.”
Mayor of Ridgefield Matt Cole provided further context to The Reflector regarding Dinehart’s statement that Ridgefield’s rate is $599 per trip. Cole stated that Ridgefield bases its fees on average daily trips, whereas Woodland bases its fees on peak-hour trips.
“Run the same methodology and our fee comes out to approximately $6,000 against Woodland’s $8,400,” Cole stated, adding that Ridgefield has not directly lowered traffic impact fees due to any one development.
In a prior interview with Bobby Vickery, Paddle House Taproom developer, he said he felt he had to find a precedent for where exemptions had been successful. Vickery’s big example comes from the Seattle Metro area.
“City of Shoreline, you know, they had a small business impact fee exemption for nine years from I think it was 2016 to 2025,” he said. “I talked to their city developer, and they said, ‘Yeah, this was all about creating opportunities for small businesses.’”
Mayor Dinehart said the city has looked into deferment and exemptions for traffic impact fees.
During the discussion, many questions from Dinehart for Woodland City Attorney Emily Guildner to answer led her to say she has not found any authority or examples of certain traffic impact fee reductions or waivers. When asked about the city of Shoreline’s waivers that Vickery had mentioned and brought printed copies of at a prior meeting, Guildner said she has taken a look through Shoreline’s code and since they had overturned the nine-year exemption, it is no longer applicable. Guildner added she was not able to find what the authority is.
In Shoreline’s current municipal code on the city’s website, Chapter 3.80, Impact Fees for Transportation, under 3.80.070, Exemptions, there is a section labeled “Expired December 31, 2025.”
However, Vickery insists he has already handed out printed copies of the prior statutes that explain the nine-year exemptions that ended in 2025.
Vickery interrupted and asked if she had reached out to Shoreline’s city attorney, to which Guildner responded, “No,” and stumbled on words and paused for a couple of seconds.
Vickery continued his point, “So this is where my frustration comes in. Right? … One of the things in the military that they always taught me was just because it hasn’t been done before, like, just because it’s the way we have been doing it. It doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, right? And so what I did was provided you guys … their statute that shows that, yes, they provided small businesses that do not have a drive-thru exemptions.”
Vickery had previously said the impact fees are his breaking point with the amount reaching a quarter million dollars.
Woodland Councilor Gabe Huston questioned how the impact fees reach the dollar amount that they do as the proposed taproom development with additional lots is only accessed off of Goerig Street. Woodland Community Development Director Travis Goddard explained how the routes are all interconnected.
“Because eventually you’re going to get to either (state Route) 503, (Interstate 5) Exit 21 or Exit 22,” Goddard said. “So as long as he is generating a trip that goes through some of our capital improvement projects, that’s the nexus for the impact fee.”
Vickery stated that his $255,000 goes only toward sidewalk improvements, not full roadway infrastructure improvements. Woodland Public Works Director Riley Bunnell said one of the major focus points for Vickery’s impact fees is sidewalks.
Vickery also continued to emphasize the importance of the precedent Shoreline had set, to which Dinehart confirmed that the city will look into it further, with Guildner reaching out to Shoreline’s city attorney.
After Vickery concluded his comments, Woodland developer and planning commission member Dave Simpson said in his hearing comment that the best way to support small businesses is to fix the traffic.
“We have people that don’t stop and purchase things in Woodland because they’ve already got a half-hour wait to get out of town,” Simpson said. “So, there are already people losing business until we get Exit 21 fixed and we get things moving better and people have the time.”
Simpson, having developed land in Woodland, said he has paid impact fees and made road improvements before.
“My understanding is if we give somebody a pass on this impact fee, it’s going to come out of the general fund; so that’s my money,” Simpson continued.” Right? Furthermore, if we do a deferral, we’re going to become the ‘Bank of Woodland,’ ‘Woodland Savings and Loan,’ we’re going to loan people money.”
Simpson concluded his public comment with a sail-flattening statement as a precedent could be set where prior developers may seek refunds on previously paid impact fees.
“I’m not for changing it,” he said. “If we have a viable project, we can borrow the money and we can build it and make payments on our impact fees like everybody else. So, otherwise, I’m looking forward to the refund if you guys change your minds.”
Huston responded with, “Essentially, then we’re saying is unless you have a ton of money and you’re loaded or a huge corporation, you don’t have a chance of ever opening a business in town.”
Woodland city councilors considered many ideas and possibilities for city staff to continue to look into traffic impact fees during the hearing.
At the end of the workshop, Dinehart referred to the impact fee topic as a “tough nugget” that the community will have to work together on.
