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Council adopts revised planning fees; development services fees updated for multifamily projects
Summary
Morgan City adopted changes to its planning and zoning fee schedule, adjusting preliminary review and professional services deposits to better reflect multifamily and building-based review work. The ordinance also increases the final-review fee for subdivisions.
Morgan City Council adopted changes to the city's planning and zoning consolidated fee schedule, updating rates that staff say were not covering review costs for multifamily and complex development applications.
Staff described the changes as targeted fixes to the development services fee structure. Under the adopted approach, preliminary review for development applications will require a $500 base application fee plus $90 per lot or per building—whichever applies—so that multifamily projects with multiple units on a single lot are not undercharged. Professional services deposits are being structured to collect a larger up‑front amount, and staff proposed increasing the final review fee (previously $100) to $500 to better cover review costs.
"When you have multifamily, one lot can have many units and the old per‑lot fee wasn't covering that," a staff member said during the meeting. The city said the intent is to better align fees with staff time and the actual cost of plan review, engineering checks and coordination with other departments.
Council members clarified the fee applies to development applications—subdivision and site-plan reviews—and does not replace building‑permit fees, which are handled under a different schedule. Staff also noted the new fee language uses a consistent $90 per-lot or per-building factor, replacing inconsistent $80/$90 entries in prior schedules.
The ordinance updating the consolidated planning and zoning fees (Ordinance 2415) passed on a unanimous vote. Staff said the changes will be reflected in the city's application checklists and posted with the next fee update.
