Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Agricultural Protection Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Bannock County commissioners approve fees for agricultural protection-area designation and reconsideration requests
Summary
The Bannock County Board of Commissioners adopted two new fees during a public hearing: a fee for agricultural protection-area designation and a fee for reconsideration of a commissioner’s decision. County planning staff said the charges are intended to cover intake and processing work; no public comments were received.
Bannock County commissioners on Wednesday adopted two new fees tied to agricultural land protection and requests to reconsider a commissioner’s decision after a short public hearing during which no members of the public spoke.
Planning Director Hal Jensen told commissioners the first fee would cover intake and processing for landowners who ask to place property in the county's agricultural protection area, and the second would cover staff time when someone files a reconsideration of a commissioner's decision. "The fee was based commensurate upon other fees that we currently have on the books," Jensen said, adding the work includes intake, processing of paperwork, legal notifications, public hearings and GIS mapping.
Jensen read the fees into the record: the agricultural protection-area designation fee was stated as $945 and the reconsideration-of-commissioner's-decision fee as $150. Commissioners had not received any written comments and no members of the public signed up to speak, the presiding commissioner said during the hearing.
After brief discussion confirming there were no public or written comments, a commissioner moved to adopt the proposed fees. The motion passed on a voice vote; the presiding commissioner recorded "Aye" and announced the motion passed.
The county planning director said the fees were intended to remedy a prior absence of charges for comparable staff work and to align the new charges with similar existing application-processing fees. The hearing record shows the fees were adopted during the public hearing; the transcript does not show a roll-call vote or individual commissioners' names tied to yes/no votes.
The adoption means landowners who seek inclusion in the agricultural protection area and parties seeking reconsideration of a commissioner's decision will now be charged the stated fees when submitting applications or requests. No additional materials, appeals timelines, or implementation dates were specified during the hearing.
