As the city grows more homes are being built, which means more children and the need for more schools.

The City Council approved ordinance No. 1478 at the council meeting on Feb. 25.

This ordinance is a school impact fee for the Sumner School District, which will go into about April 2, according to Bonney Lake City Administrator Don Morrison said.

“I appreciated all the discussion by council around these fees and coming up with a solution for multi-family,” Mayor Neil Johnson said. “Since this fee is not a city fee but a fee based on the school districts capital facilities plan, it is important we adopt these fees so that the school district can collect them which insures our schools have the funds necessary for their capital projects.”

The idea, Morrison said, is that new development should help pay for additional facilities needed in the school district.

The fee that was adopted at the meeting is set for $3,215 for every new home built and $415 for each new apartment unit that is built, he said.

“The school impact fee offsets a portion of the cost of new schools so the existing residents don’t have to pay so much for the additional schools needed to serve the new residential growth,” Morrison said.

This is an increase of $210 for a new home and $415 for an apartment unit.

Morrison said the addition of the fee for apartment units is because those who build apartment complexes are renting to people who have children.

He added, the rate is lower for those in apartments because studies show that the average number of school age children who live in apartment complexes are lower than the number of children who live in single family homes.

“We are hoping that the city of Sumner will follow ours and Pierce County’s lead in adopting these updated fees,” Johnson said.