Fulshear council adopts amendments to master fee schedule for zoning, sign plans and inspections

Fulshear — The City Council on March 4 approved amendments to the master fee schedule to add or revise fees for zoning verification requests, master sign plans and civil inspection charges tied to capacity rather than valuation.

Planning staff proposed a $50 zoning verification request fee, a renaming of the zoning amendment/SUP fee (current rate remains $600 plus $15 per acre), a new master sign plan fee of $300 with revisions at $150 per submittal, and residential and commercial civil inspection fees structured by capacity. Staff said recent changes in Texas law prohibit charging based on valuation, so the department recalculated fees using relationships between capacity and cost.

Under the adopted schedule, staff recommended residential civil inspection fees of $1,000 plus $200 per lot and commercial civil inspection fees of $1,000 plus $500 per acre. Wastewater treatment plants would be inspected at a proposed rate of $0.11 per gallon per day of capacity, wastewater package plants at a flat $5,000, lift-station inspections at $5,000, and water plants at $0.06 per gallon of production. Staff also recommended removing a $100 additional plan-review fee while maintaining a civil plan review fee of $9.50.

Staff said the new fees were benchmarked against comparable cities and recent projects and that the changes are intended to cover city costs and remain revenue-neutral relative to ongoing projects. Josh Brothers of public works explained the capacity-based approach is designed to cover inspection and staff costs for long-running infrastructure projects.

Council member Rudacar moved to approve the amendment; Council member Johnson seconded. The council voted by voice and the motion passed.