County transportation and development department adopts broad fee updates, including tech fee and septic resets

The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously, 5–0, to approve a comprehensive set of fee and fine changes for the Department of Transportation and Development (DTD).

Director Dan Johnson and Senior Administrative Services Manager Deidre Lambdin presented the package, which includes multiple types of changes: elimination of roughly 17 obsolete fees and three small fines; minor reductions (for example to certain library late fines) intended to align with regional practice; housekeeping updates to fee names and descriptions; roughly 27 new fees and 14 new fines tied to new statutory or programmatic requirements (for example middle‑housing permitting); a modest technical processing fee for online permit submissions (a small percentage up to a $5 cap); rounding adjustments to avoid awkward cash handling for very small fees; and one‑time resets for fees that have fallen behind market, notably septic and soil services where fees had not been updated in several years.

Johnson said DTD examined regional comparators and tried to minimize increases while bringing fees into market. He described outreach with industry stakeholders and said the department would run a communications plan that provides advance notice so…