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Council approves amendment with SafeBuilt, accepts modest permit fee increases
Summary
Argyle approved a contract amendment with SafeBuilt to add services (health reviews and on-site sewer plan review) and accepted small fee increases; council discussed permit revenue and expense structures and third-party review workload.
The Argyle Town Council approved Resolution 2025-41 to amend the town's agreement with third-party plan reviewer and inspection firm SafeBuilt to reflect a modest fee increase and to add health-services and on-site sewer facility plan review to the firm's scope.
Why it matters: SafeBuilt performs building plan review and inspections on behalf of the town. Council members said keeping third-party review capacity is important to meet inspection timelines, avoid bottlenecks on large projects and to avoid hiring a large, permanent in-house staff for peaks and valleys in development activity.
Scope and fee changes Staff said SafeBuilt requested a market-based rate adjustment not made since 2021; the proposed increase is modest (examples given included a change from $7.50 to $7.71 for the first 1,500 sq. ft. of residential review and similar per-square-foot adjustments). SafeBuilt will now offer health-code plan reviews (useful for restaurants and commercial kitchens) and on-site sewer (septic) plan reviews; staff noted the residential septic review fee would rise from $400 to $411 and the commercial septic review from $500 to $514 under the amendment.
Council questions Council members asked whether the town still nets revenue on permits after contractor costs and whether a portion of a $546,095 "development inspections" expense line represents SafeBuilt. Staff said that a portion of that line item covers external contractors, engineering costs and some in-house staff time; staff also noted the town previously ran a deficit in permit-related accounts and that accurate fee setting is necessary to cover treatment and inspection costs.
SafeBuilt's representative said Argyle sits on one of the firm's older pricing schedules and that the firm does not require a minimum fee if the town chooses to use them sporadically; SafeBuilt also described typical plan-review turnaround times: 3'5 business days for standard residential reviews and about 10 business days for most commercial permits, with timing extended by applicant resubmittals.
Action and next steps Council approved the amendment by motion and second. Staff said they will continue to monitor permit revenue and expense lines, pursue an updated engineering procurement to refine development fee structures, and return with reports as needed.
Ending Council members supported the amendment and asked staff to provide periodic accounting showing the relationship between permit revenues and inspection-related expenses.
