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Margate resident calls permit fees excessive, urges commission to review rates
Summary
A Margate resident told the commission the city’s permit fees are disproportionately high for small home projects and asked officials to reexamine the fee schedule.
Donna Fellows, a Margate resident speaking during public discussion at the Jan. 22 meeting, told the commission that the city’s building-permit fees are “out of the roof” and urged the commission to review the fee schedule for affordability.
Fellows cited a recent window-replacement job that she said cost approximately $14,000 and resulted in about $860 in Margate permit fees. “I paid 860 something dollars on permit fees for a $14,000 window job. This is crazy,” she said. She compared that to an example she said occurred in Cape Coral in which a $300,000 job paid $600 in permit fees.
Fellows said high permit costs create a particular burden for senior citizens on fixed incomes and asked the commission to “get together and redo it and look at it” so that fees are not prohibitive.
No official response or commitment to review the permit-fee schedule was recorded during the meeting. The complaint was raised during public comment and was not placed on the agenda as an action item.
The comments on Jan. 22 represent a request from a member of the public for the commission or staff to review fee policies; the transcript does not show staff presenting fee schedules, revenue figures, or a staff response with specific proposed changes.
This article reports the resident’s statements and the absence of a formal staff or commission response at the Jan. 22 meeting.
