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Prosper updates development, building, parks and engineering fees; council directs further review by parks board
Summary
Council approved a comprehensive update to the town fee schedule covering planning, building permits, health and code, parks reservations and engineering inspection fees. Council directed staff to send park-related fees to the Parks and Recreation Board for review and noted the budget impact is small.
The Prosper Town Council on Sept. 16 approved changes to Appendix A of the town code to update a broad set of municipal fees for development services, building inspections, health and code enforcement, parks and recreation reservations and engineering services.
David (Development Services) told council the last planning fees update dated to 2015 and that the proposed schedule was intended to bring Prosper into the mid-range among comparable North Texas cities. He said the revisions move some nonrefundable deposits to application fees, simplify commercial permit calculations and raise several inspection and permit charges.
Dan (Parks and Recreation) described proposed changes to parkland dedication (one acre per 30 units, remaining at a 5% option), park improvement fees (raising from $1,500 to $2,000 per single-family unit and from $2,000 to $3,000 per multifamily unit) and several reservation fees. He said reducing the nonresident pavilion rate could generate more bookings and recommended taking a percentage of tournament gate receipts while keeping a minimum deposit. Council members asked that park-related fee changes be reviewed by the Parks and Recreation Board before finalization; staff said council could approve the rates tonight and allow the board to recommend edits later.
Engineering staff presented new inspection and plan-review fees calculated from a level-of-effort analysis; some single-family and commercial inspection fees were proposed to increase and a new multifamily category was added. The flood-plain study deposit was raised to $3,500 to match third-party review costs.
Council asked that some fees be rechecked against neighboring cities (Frisco, McKinney and Celina) and asked staff to run additional sensitivity and budget analyses if council wanted to raise engineering fees to parity with larger neighbors. Staff said the overall budget impact of the parks fee changes was modest (less than $50,000) and that the council could amend rates later.
Council approved the fee amendments unanimously with direction to: (1) send parks fees to the Parks and Recreation Board for review and (2) allow staff to return later with any recommended adjustments after additional analysis.
Why it matters: The changes update fees that had not been revised for years, aim to better recover the cost of service delivery, and adjust recreation pricing to manage nonresident use of fields and facilities.
Votes: Ordinance amending Appendix A, fee schedule of the town's code of ordinances: Passed unanimously (7-0).
