Pasco council tables proposal to replace hourly plan‑review fees after developers warn of large increases

PASCO, Wash. — The Pasco City Council on Feb. 18 postponed action on Ordinance No. 4760, a proposal to replace the city’s hourly plan‑review and inspection fees with a percentage‑based public infrastructure development fee. Council voted unanimously to table the ordinance for further review and community outreach; the item will return to the council workshop on March 10.

Under the ordinance language presented, plan‑review and inspection fees would be calculated as a percentage of the project cost for public infrastructure — specifically utilities, roads and stormwater — rather than by the hourly billing system currently used by the city. Deputy City Manager (Sigdell / Seagdell) explained: "The project cost is not the cost of the whole project... It would be the utilities, water, sewer, stormwater, roads, that would be, that would be the cost, that this project cost is referring to."

Nut graf: The change is intended to create revenue to hire more staff and speed permitting, but developers told council the proposed fee formula would dramatically raise up‑front costs for many projects and risk making housing and lot production more expensive.

Developers and consultants who spoke at the meeting offered concrete examples. One attorney representing developers said a recent 50‑lot project paid roughly $6,000 in current inspection and plan‑review fees; under the proposed structure, that same project could face fees in the tens of thousands of dollars. "Going from 6 to 10 times what he's currently paying," several speakers said during public comment, referring to the scale of the proposed increase for sample projects.

Staff told council the hourly system dates to 2010 and has not been adjusted to reflect current labor costs or the city’s slower review timelines. Deputy City Manager Sigdell reminded council that Pasco used a percentage model in 2010 and later switched to hourly billing; she said revenue from new fees would be reinvested in plan‑review staffing, process and technology.

Councilmembers raised a mix of concerns: several supported the goal of predictable, timely reviews but said the magnitude of the proposed increase—staff showed an example where Pasco’s estimate was roughly $7,700 compared with about $47,000 in a neighboring jurisdiction’s sample — was too large to adopt immediately. Multiple councilmembers suggested a middle path: raise the hourly rate, pilot process improvements, or implement a phased or scaled percentage approach rather than a single large jump.

Following more than an hour of public comment that included builders, engineers and members of the development community, the council voted to table the ordinance to the March 10 workshop and asked staff to convene additional meetings with developers ahead of that date.

Ending: Staff said they will return with alternative fee scenarios, additional outreach notes from the development community and refined estimates of how fee revenue would be spent to improve timelines and staffing.