POULSBO — With the city gearing up to update its comprehensive plan in 2007, the transportation element of that issue has already hit the road.

Since its Sept. 27 meeting, the city council’s public works committee has been reviewing the city’s proposed 20-year Transportation Improvement Plan.

In addition to determining the city’s overall road needs for the next two decades, the plan includes a proposed traffic impact fee ordinance.

That ordinance would replace the city’s current traffic mitigation fee and increase the cost from $440 per single family residence to about $6,000 per single family residence.

Under the traffic mitigation fee, which is determined by the city’s State Environmental Protection Act assessment of each development, costs are determined by the impacts of each project, City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak said.

However, under the proposed traffic impact fee ordinance, the costs will be determined by the number of trips each project is estimated to have, Kasiniak said.

That estimate is based on nationally recognized standards, he said, and single family residences, for example, generate about 100 trips.

“Kitsap County’s range from $500 to $700 and Sammamish is $1,500 (per trip),” said Planning Director Barry Berezowsky, pointing to comparable cities with traffic impact fees.

“For the next 20 years, we are estimating that we need $129 million in new projects, and developers will pay for $79 million of that,” Kasiniak said.

Currently, the city’s traffic mitigation fees don’t cover the actual costs of the improvements needed for each development, Berezowsky said.

The last time the city updated its traffic mitigation fees was in 1994, so the jump is reflective of that timeframe, Councilman Mike Regis said.

However, the estimated $129 million needed is based on the council deciding to have a citywide traffic level of service E, Kasiniak said, noting that the ranking, which runs A-F, is the minimum the city can offer.

“This is a good level of service. It can’t be anything less,” he said. “This is the most economical and most efficient option.”

If the council decides on a higher level of service, then costs would increase and there would be roads that could not be improved to that level, Kasiniak said.

That possibility makes the final decision about the citywide level of service that much more important, Councilman Jeff McGinty said.

“That sets us at Level E, which is a significant decision to make,” McGinty said.

The transportation plan is expected to go before the full council in December.