Director of Community Development outlines fire-fee increases, development-code notice changes and upcoming hearings

Jennifer Jolley, director of San Joaquin County Community Development, combined her director’s report and new-business update at the meeting, telling the Planning Commission that the department will take several items to the Board of Supervisors on May 13, including a fee hearing and a development-title update.

Jolley said the county has not raised fire-fee charges in about 12 years. "We realized we were really only recouping about 20 ish percent of cost recovery on permits and they haven't been updated in, like I said, 12 years, maybe a little more," Jolley said. She said the department’s recommendation to the board is to increase cost recovery to around 49% on average and to phase additional increases over the next few years to reduce shock to permit applicants. Jolley said the Fire Chiefs Association supports the proposal.

Jolley also said new state legislation that took effect in January requires a 20-day public-notification period for items that affect property rights — for example zone reclassifications or text amendments — and that requirement affected the department’s scheduling, moving the development-title update to the May 13 board meeting to satisfy the notification timeline.

Jolley said the commission is currently short one planning commissioner and that Supervisor Dhaliwal will appoint a replacement soon. Corinne King, planning staff, outlined upcoming Planning Commission agendas: May 15 will include revisions to a previously approved subdivision on South Del Mar and East Main Street, a continued conditional use permit for a religious assembly in Tracy and the county housing element and a general plan text amendment; June 5 will include a conditional-use permit modification for the Manteca Sportsman's Club; no items were scheduled for June 19 at the time of the report.

Commissioners asked whether the proposed fire fees would mirror fees charged by the City of Stockton. Jolley said the proposed fee adjustments are based on a department-conducted nexus study of time-and-materials and plan-check costs rather than parity with Stockton, and reiterated the plan to move toward partial cost recovery initially and incremental increases afterward.

Jolley closed by asking commissioners to notify staff well in advance if they expect absences so staff can manage agenda scheduling for applicants and staff.