Council adopts broad fee updates; controversy erupts over proposed jump in heritage‑tree appeal fee

Mountain View adopted a comprehensive update to its municipal master fee schedule on June 10 after staff presented a cost‑of‑service study and fee recommendations; the meeting included lengthy public comment focused on a proposed large increase to the fee for filing a heritage‑tree removal appeal.

What staff recommended Finance and Community Development staff retained consultants (Willdan Financial Services and Bartle Wells Associates) to compute fully burdened hourly costs and to set cost‑recovery targets. Staff told the council the city’s user fees had not been comprehensively updated for many years and that many building and planning fees were well below full cost. Highlights of staff work and recommendations included: - A new cost allocation and user‑fee model that calculates a fully burdened hourly rate by classification and then applies estimated hours to each service to derive full cost, with the model designed for annual updates. - Water and sewer capacity charges updated by Bartle Wells; staff reported recommended capacity‑charge increases in the range of about 20% up to roughly 125% (varies by unit type) to recover system expansion costs; accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are exempted from those capacity charges per the…