Council defers vote on annual fee-schedule changes after questions over building and planning increases

City staff presented an annual update to the comprehensive fee schedule that would apply CPI-U adjustments (staff recommended using an 11-month average and a 2.7% adjustment because October federal CPI data were unavailable) and several non-CPI housekeeping changes across planning, engineering, finance, parks and public-works fees.

Jason (finance/GIS) explained changes that included new stormwater calculation fees for engineering, internal billing updates for staff time, a temporary-use fee increase, removal of River Vista House fees in parks, and clarifications for deposits and charges in finance and utilities. Jason noted a proposed $2,000 fee for providing the GIS orthophotography product to a requester, which drew questions; staff said the base aerial package costs the city roughly $20,000 a year and the high-resolution product has high value.

Council members questioned whether increasing planning, building and engineering fees during a construction slowdown would deter development and whether some listed fees (printing, document-copy charges, inspection-permit fees) were excessive. Councilor 7 moved to defer the fee-schedule vote to a future workshop to review specific fee items line-by-line; staff offered an alternate approach to adopt utility fees now and postpone planning/building adjustments, but the council voted to defer and schedule a workshop for further review. Staff will return with suggested dates and options.