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Laguna Woods proposes insourcing building inspections and adopts modest fee increases tied to the change
Summary
City staff proposed bringing building-permit, inspection and code-enforcement work in house, adding a planning and environmental services director and up to eight full‑time equivalents; council signaled support and approved a fee schedule increase (effective July 1) that reflects the planned staffing change.
The Laguna Woods City Council heard a multi-part proposal from staff to insource building-permit, plan-review, inspection and code-enforcement services that are currently provided by consultants, and then approved a separate fee-study resolution to set new permit and planning fees timed to the staffing change.
City Manager Chris Macon said the city has contracted building services for many years but that rising contract labor costs and the desire to better manage long‑term permit fee growth motivated a proposal to move most services onto city payroll. "The only way for us to manage the growth of building permits over time is to take control of the single largest cost driver by a mile in those permits, which is labor," Macon told the council. He…
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