Plan commission approves fees to reimburse outside plan-review costs

The Town of Whitestown Plan Commission voted to amend its fee schedule to authorize reimbursement charges when the town uses outside consultants to perform detailed technical plan reviews.

Sri, Town engineer (joining by Zoom), told commissioners the change mirrors an existing practice in the building department: for larger or technically complex projects the town can hire outside firms for plan review and then charge the applicant for those costs. Sri said the practice is intended for horizontal/site engineering elements such as drainage and utility plans and that smaller projects are intended to be reviewed in house. He said staff typically would limit external reviews to around 10 hours and estimated an outside review would generally be on the order of $1,000 to $1,500, although exact costs will vary and applicants will be told in advance when an outside consultant will be used.

Commissioners asked how applicants would be notified and how costs would be controlled; Sri said staff would inform applicants up front and would instruct consultants to limit hours. Commissioners also clarified that the planning commission is the body that approves the fee schedule amendment, and that while many application types handled by both the planning commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) could theoretically be reviewed by an outside vendor, the fee-schedule document itself only required planning-commission approval under state law.

A motion to approve the amendment to the Plan Commission fee schedule establishing reimbursement for plan-review fees was made and passed (roll-call announced as in favor). The transcript records no roll-call by individual name in the provided excerpt.