Carroll County approves 20% rise in plan-review fees; effective Oct. 1

Carroll County Commissioners on July 3 voted to direct staff to adjust development plan-review fees upward by an average of 20% to recover salary-related costs for the agencies that perform development reviews.

The motion, moved and seconded during a lengthy briefing and public discussion, passed with four votes in favor and one opposed. Commissioners also set an implementation date of Oct. 1, 2025, and asked staff to return with a review every two years.

County planning staff told the board the proposed increase responds to salary and staffing changes since 2019 that have raised the salary cost for the agencies covered by the review-fee program. Staff presented two cost-comparison approaches: a 28.1% average salary increase for county employees from 2019–2024, and a 36.6% increase when looking specifically at the review-related staff and added positions. After comparing recent fee collections (staff recommended using an average of fiscal years 2022–2024) with the current salary burden, staff recommended the 20% increase to better align fee revenue with salary costs.

Commissioners asked for examples of how the change would affect typical reviews. Planning staff ran model projects during the meeting: a nonresidential site plan with about 2 acres of disturbance would have seen fees rise from roughly $14,229 under the current rates to about $17,000 under the proposed rates (about a 19.5% increase for that example). Staff said the fee schedule change adjusts unit rates used across many metrics (acreage, lots, presence of floodplain, etc.) rather than being an hourly charge tied to individual staff timesheets.

Board members debated whether to base changes on a single recent year or a multi-year average; several commissioners pressed for predictable, stable fees rather than annual adjustments. Frederick County’s recent 25% fee increase for multiple fiscal years was noted as an example of another jurisdiction’s approach. The board directed staff to implement the Oct. 1 effective date to allow IT and permitting systems time to code the new rates.

The resolution authorizing the change references the 2020 resolution that requires the county to seek salary recovery for the agencies covered by review fees. Commissioners explicitly separated discussion (policy context and numerical models), direction (staff tasking to post and implement the new fee schedule and return with two-year reviews), and the formal action (the vote to direct staff to adjust fees by an average of 20% and to make the change effective Oct. 1, 2025).

What remains: staff will finalize the rate table and implement the schedule in the county’s permitting software by Oct. 1, 2025. The board requested staff return with a report on the fee impacts and recommended review cadence in two years.