Santa Clara adopts FY2025–26 municipal fee schedule with CPI adjustments; short-term additions included

The Santa Clara City Council unanimously adopted its Fiscal Year 2025–26 municipal fee schedule on Tuesday, applying a general 3.5% cost-of-living adjustment to most user fees, adding new fees for short-term rental registration and transportation demand management (TDM) reviews, and removing obsolete or duplicative entries.

The update is a regular mid-cycle review of fees that the city conducts between comprehensive biennial fee studies. City staff and consultant ClearSource Financial presented the changes and said the adjustments were designed to keep the fees aligned with the cost of providing specific, user-requested services rather than to expand the city’s general revenue base.

Nut graf: The package covers 1,240 individual fees. Staff said 70% of fees will reflect the 3.5% inflationary adjustment, about 6% of fees are proposed for deletion (often because they are duplicative or administered by the county), and roughly 1% are new or restructured. Council approved the schedule and an authorization that allows fire department staff to consolidate operational permit fees when multiple permits can be reviewed in a single site visit.

Tess Hong, senior management analyst in finance, summarized the changes and said most fee lines were updated only for inflation. She noted that 26 fee items in the Fire Department would increase above 3.5% because they are part of a previously approved multi-year phase-in (Certified Unified Program Agency or CUPA fees) or because service times increased for specific plan-review tasks.

Among the new fees are expedited plan-review options in Community Development and Fire, a short-term rental registration and annual renewal fee to cover consultant and compliance costs, and a mailed-notice fee and physical plaque fee for Mills Act listings in Planning. Staff also proposed deleting fees that are no longer collected by the city (for example, some animal-control fees that the county processes).

Council members asked about the short-term-rental fee structure, whether it would be collected by platforms via voluntary collection agreements, and whether the new fees buy faster service for customers. City Manager Jevon Grogan and Finance staff said expedited review fees permit work outside normal business hours or through contracted resources but do not guarantee a fixed turnaround; they said revenue is intended to cover the higher cost of overtime or additional contract review capacity rather than to alter standards of review.

Council approved the municipal fee schedule as presented, with changes to reflect the council’s earlier action on field and turf fees. The changes take effect July 1, 2025. Staff said outreach and implementation steps will follow for the short-term rental registration and similar new items.