Board of Health approves noise-variance fee schedule to recoup administrative costs

The Appleton Board of Health on March 12 approved a fee schedule for noise variances intended to recover administrative costs associated with processing those requests. The board voted to adopt the proposed schedule after staff described categories of variances that will be exempted or treated differently.

Board members and staff said the change is intended to offset time spent processing variance requests, not to generate revenue. Megan (health department staff) told the board the charge was included in the 2025 budget to “recoup some of the costs that are spent in excess dealing with these… noise variance” administrative tasks. The fee schedule specifically excludes most nonprofit special-event licenses and routine contractor variances tied to city maintenance work, officials said.

The memo before the board was the fee schedule proposal only; the…