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Corte Madera adopts updated building and planning fee schedule, raises appeal fee to $1,500
Summary
The Town Council adopted a revised fee schedule that restructures building and planning fees, raises the appeal fee for council-level appeals and increases targeted discounts for certain permit types; fees take effect July 1.
The Corte Madera Town Council on April 15 adopted Resolution 15 20 25, approving a revised building and planning fee schedule that restructures permit charges and changes appeal and discount policies.
The action updates how the town calculates user fees for permits and planning reviews, sets a higher appeal fee for appeals to the council at $1,500 (with a $500 fee for appeals of administrative decisions), and raises targeted permit discounts from 25% to 50% for certain categories including residential electrification projects, construction to accommodate a disability, and affordable housing units built in excess of required inclusionary thresholds.
Amy Lyle, community development director, opened the public hearing and described the proposal as the formal adoption step to align the town’s fees with the cost of delivering building and planning services. “This is another conversation about our fees. This is the formal public hearing tonight on, possible adoption of our fee update,” Lyle said during her staff report.
Terry Madsen, the town’s consultant from ClearSource Financial, explained the legal and policy framework behind fee studies: “We’re eligible to recover our cost of service, but we don’t want to exceed that,” he told the council, stressing that fees are intended as cost recovery rather than revenue generation.
Council members debated appeal-fee options after reviewing the town’s recent appeals history: three appeals from the planning commission to council in five years (all upheld) and two appeals of administrative decisions. Staff recommended a two-tiered approach — full cost recovery for appeals to council and a lower fee for administrative appeals — and the council settled on $1,500 for appeals to council and $500 for administrative appeals to balance accessibility with discouraging frivolous appeals.
The council also directed staff to revise the fee language to remove the word “qualifying” from the construction-to-accommodate-disability discount, so that reduced fees would be available for building work to accommodate disabilities without a narrow qualifier. The council decided to increase the share of cost recovery provided by the town’s discounts for the three identified categories from the previously proposed 25% to 50%.
Under the resolution the new fee schedule will take effect July 1 to give staff time to update permit systems and public messaging. The staff report and town presentations said the schedule is intended to scale fees to project complexity, recalibrate planning deposits and hourly billing, and better align Corte Madera with regional rates.
Council vote: Council member Andrews — yes; Council member Beckman — yes; Council member Casiza — yes; Vice Mayor Thomas — yes; Mayor O’Vasio — yes. The motion carried.
The council asked staff to prepare clear public materials explaining the changes and to return any minor language amendments needed to ensure the disability-related discount applies broadly to construction that accommodates a disability.
