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Council reviews proposed update to building permit fee schedule tied to ICC cost tables
Summary
Councilors reviewed a staff recommendation to update the borough's permit base costs to the International Code Council table (2018/updated values). That change would raise example permit fees by roughly 20—5% for typical projects without changing current permit multipliers; staff will publish figures and a calculator before adoption.
Franklin Park borough staff proposed updating the town's building permit fee schedule by adopting more recent construction cost factors from the International Code Council (ICC) tables used with the 2018 Uniform Construction Code (UCC). The change, presented at the work session, would raise the estimated construction unit costs used to compute permit fees and increase example permit bills by roughly 20—5% even though the borough's percentage multipliers would remain the same.
The change is intended to align the borough's permit valuations with nationally maintained ICC tables, which are updated periodically to reflect current construction prices. "He's extracting that number to update our estimated cost of construction based on the square footage of the particular building," said Speaker 8 during the briefing, describing staff's method of mapping ICC table rows to local permit examples. Staff pointed to a specific example in the packet where finished living space would move from about $130 per square foot to roughly $170 per square foot under the updated table.
Why it matters: permit fees are calculated as a percentage of the estimated cost of construction. Updating the base cost raises the dollar value the multipliers are applied to, producing higher permit revenues without adjusting the multipliers themselves. Council members asked for clear public messaging because the percentage formula will not change even though many permit payers will see higher dollar amounts. "We need to make that very clear because people will ask why fees went up 25% when we didn't change the percentage," Speaker 3 said.
Details and next steps: staff told the council that the borough currently computes permit valuations manually using tables and multipliers and that they are preparing a spreadsheet calculator and eventual software integration to automate the process. The staff also noted the borough is operating under the 2018 UCC, and ICC cost tables are refreshed on a triennial basis; adopting newer ICC values is a typical municipal practice to keep fees aligned with market costs. Council asked staff to: publish worked examples showing old vs. new dollar amounts, confirm which ICC table year will be the borough's basis, and draft explanatory language for public notices ahead of any ordinance change.
No formal vote was taken at the meeting; staff will return with a calculator, the recommended ICC table year, and proposed ordinance language for the council's consideration at a future meeting.
