Council hears staff report on proposed 10% prepayment for plan review; ordinance laid over to July 23

The council heard a staff report on Ordinance 25-41, a proposal to amend chapter 33.04 of the legislative code to require that 10% of the estimated plan-review fee be paid before a review may begin for plan reviews over $1,000.

Deputy Director David Hoban of the Department of Safety and Inspections told the council the proposed change is intended to reduce the number of incomplete or substantially deficient plan submissions and to help the department recover review work when applicants do not complete the permitting process. Hoban said the proposed 10% payment would be 10% of the plan-review fee (the plan-review fee being 65% of the estimated building permit fee). He said the proposed minimum amount would be $85 for permits over $1,000 and the prepayment would be capped at $5,000 for very large projects. Hoban said there is no total fee increase: “There’s no fee increase with this. ... We’re just asking that there’s a little more acknowledgement that when they apply for a permit that there’s a level of paperwork that is reasonable to assume we need.”

Council members asked how a partial upfront payment would address the specific problem of incomplete plans and whether 10% would be sufficient to recover review costs when permit applicants do not complete the process. Council Member Provodzinski said municipalities commonly require full upfront plan-review fees but said he appreciated the city’s sensitivity to cost and that a higher amount could be considered. Council members acknowledged the department’s volume of work—Hoban said the city receives roughly 13,000–16,000 permits annually—and that the proposal was intended as a step to improve review timelines rather than a full solution.

The council laid Ordinance 25-41 over to July 23 for a public hearing and second reading. Staff will return with the public hearing record and any recommended edits. No final vote on adoption was taken on July 16.