Eastside Fire and Rescue proposes higher permit fees; Sammamish staff to forward fees as pass-through

Eastside Fire and Rescue presented proposed changes to its fire permit fee structure to the Sammamish City Council on Oct. 21, asking the council to support updating the city's fee schedule and to pass through collected permit revenues to the fire agency.

Vicky Carlson, finance director for Eastside Fire and Rescue, and Fire Marshal Jeremy Hicks told council the agency reviewed permit analytics for roughly 2,600 plan reviews a year and found the current fees underrecover the time and cost associated with plan review, inspections and specialized review work. "We do roughly 2,600 permits a year, plan reviews. ... The cost recovery for the development within the cities is not fully covering the cost of providing these services," Hicks said.

Hicks described a methodology that ties fire plan‑review fees to the building…