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Committee forwards AD-2523 proposing building permit fee increases, including $10 administrative fee
Summary
The Amherst Building and Lands Committee voted 6-0 to send ordinance AD-2523 to the full council. The building department manager said permit fees had not been broadly adjusted since 2013 and proposed increases averaging roughly 30%–52% depending on scenario, plus a $10 administrative fee to help offset new permitting software costs.
The Amherst Building and Lands Committee voted to send ordinance AD-2523 to the full council proposing changes to building permit fees; the motion passed 6-0 in committee.
Building department manager Mister McCartney told the committee the department last updated fee schedules in 2013 and that costs — including a new permitting software contract and general inflation — prompted a reassessment. He said he reviewed fees in several Lorain County municipalities and used CPI and other measures to calculate increases. McCartney said, by the measures he examined, "we are averaging an increase of about between those 3, matrices, a little over 52%." He also proposed adding a $10 administrative fee to permit applications and asked the committee to allow the safety-service director to adjust that administrative fee by percentage (rather than requiring an ordinance change for small administrative adjustments), while keeping the core permit fees fixed by ordinance.
McCartney said the city moved to a new permitting system (GovWell) after its previous vendor was acquired; the new system significantly increased annual software costs. He estimated the department could absorb some cost increases through efficiencies but that fee adjustments were necessary. He told the committee the city likely would not implement new fees immediately and expected any new schedule to be posted and rolled out to contractors and permit applicants around the start of the next calendar year to reduce surprises.
Committee members voted to forward AD-2523 to the full council; the transcript records the committee vote as "Motion carries 6 to 0." The committee did not adopt a final implementation date; McCartney said implementation would likely be delayed until officials could notify contractors and update the online permit system.
The committee packet included a spreadsheet comparing local municipalities and highlighted which fee lines would remain within county ranges and which would differ; fiscal impact estimates were described in general terms during the meeting but specific aggregate revenue projections were not provided in the committee discussion.
