Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
San Ramon Council adopts FY25–26 master fee schedule, approves phased special-event increases and refers appeal-fee policy for review
Summary
The City Council on April 22 adopted Resolution 2025-036 updating the master fee schedule for fiscal year 2025–26, approved a four‑phase implementation for special event fee increases and directed staff to refer the higher planning-appeal fee to the policy committee for further study.
The San Ramon City Council on April 22 adopted Resolution No. 2025-036, updating the citywide master fee schedule for fiscal year 202526ndash;26 and repealing Resolution No. 2024-051. The measure passed 5-0.
The fee schedule change implements recommendations from a 2024 user-fee study by Matrix Consulting Group and adjusts hundreds of line items across departments. City staff said the update covers 1,001 fees: 508 unchanged, 478 adjusted for inflation, special circumstances or council direction, and 15 newly added fees.
Council said the schedule is part of routine annual housekeeping and an effort to recover more program costs after recent budget shortfalls. Staff highlighted changes in several departments, including planning and building, parks and community services, police evidence-storage/gun-release fees, and public works. Parks-related edits include revised facility-cancellation percentages (small/medium windows shifting to 50 percent for cancellations 3126ndash;60 days before an event) and new flat-seat fees for theater prepayments.
The council debated one high-profile item raised repeatedly in public comment: an increase to the planning appeal fee. The staff presentation said Matrixestimates a fully burdened average appeal cost near $7,500, and that the council had previously set the deposit at $4,000 to partially offset internal and external review costs. Public commenters, including Jim Blickenstaff, Shirok Kathrani and Gary Shaven, urged the council to avoid pricing residents out of the appeals process and suggested a two-tier approach distinguishing developer and resident appeals.
After discussion the council approved the fee schedule with the parks departmentrecommendation to phase in certain special-event fee increases over four phases (staff estimated the phased approach would reduce near-term revenue by about $10,026 across two fiscal years), but the body did not change the appeal fee tonight. Instead council members directed staff to return to the councilpolicy committee with options for handling appeal fees, including comparisons to neighboring jurisdictions, possible two-tier approaches, and whether fees should be refundable if an appellant prevails.
Vice Mayor Veroz moved adoption of the resolution with the four-phase special-event change; Councilmember Rubio seconded. The vote was unanimous. The council recorded the adoption as part of the FY26 revenue forecast used in the upcoming budget workshop.
Council members and staff emphasized that detailed billing of time and overhead will be provided to appellants if fees are charged, and that deposits are intended to offset actual review costs rather than serve as a penalty.
The council also directed staff to return with background material requested by members, including Matrixcomparative fee data for peer cities and an itemized breakdown of how appeal-cost averages were calculated. Those follow-ups will inform the policy committee review before any change to the appeal deposit or refund policy.
