Franklin council adopts permit-fee hikes averaging about 9% effective Jan. 1, 2026

The City of Franklin Common Council on Dec. 2 approved three ordinances to revise the city's building, plumbing and electrical/HVAC permit-fee schedules. City staff said the changes — if approved — would take effect Jan. 1, 2026.

The permitting director told the council the fee package was developed with the finance director and calibrated to the consumer price index and surrounding municipal rates, resulting in an average increase of about 9% across most permit categories. The director said the city had not increased permit fees since February 2022.

Council members requested a clarification in the ordinance language for a technology fee entry on the building-permit schedule so the fee reads consistently with the plumbing and electrical entries ("technology fee — required for all permits"). The director acknowledged that was a simple fix. Alderman Sluss asked whether the director could later provide a clean number for how much the city collected in permit fees last year; the director said he only had a combined figure including impact fees ($2,324,867) and that isolating permit-only revenue would require finance staff follow-up.

Each ordinance was moved and approved individually: the ordinances to amend Chapter 92 (building permit fees), Chapter 190 (plumbing permit fees), and Chapter 118 (electrical permit fees) were adopted by council vote.

Councilors said they wanted clarity on implementation language and requested that staff circulate the final ordinance language and any corrected fee tables prior to the effective date.