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Board approves updates to County Counsel land‑use fee schedule, shifts several fees to flat rates
Summary
The Board adopted a resolution updating County Counsel’s portion of land‑use fees: hourly rate updates, conversion of some deposit/time‑and‑materials fees to flat fees, and a change to condition‑compliance charges. Staff said changes reduce administrative burden and provide certainty for applicants.
The Board of Supervisors voted to update County Counsel land‑use related fees at the Feb. 4 meeting, approving a resolution that adjusts hourly billing rates and converts several deposit/time‑and‑materials fee lines to flat fees.
Kelly Donlin of County Counsel introduced the item and said state law allows local governments to charge fees that do not exceed reasonable costs of providing services; County Counsel’s fee schedule had not been comprehensively updated since 2019, Donlin said. Wendy Stremling, who led the fee review, told the board the recommended changes update deputy County Counsel hourly rates to reflect July 2024 step 7 salaries, convert the condition compliance review fee into a flat charge to align with Housing and Community Development’s recent change, and move many County Counsel deposit fees to an up‑front flat fee format to reduce administrative complexity and improve certainty for applicants.
Stremling said the conversion from deposit accounts to flat fees will reduce collection and coordination workload between County Counsel and HCD and produce more predictable billing for applicants. The board heard no public comment and County budget committee had earlier recommended adoption. The Board adopted the resolution unanimously; staff said the update is statutorily exempt from CEQA as a fiscal activity.
The resolution directs County Counsel and HCD to implement the revised fee schedule and to publish the updated fee table in the county fee resolution, article 17. No fee amounts were read into the record at the hearing; County Counsel said the packet contains the proposed schedule and that the changes reflect a mix of increases (hourly rate alignment) and decreases (time adjustments, conversion to flat fees for some items).
