Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Planning And Land Use topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Avon planning department proposes fee increases to recover about 85% of processing costs
Summary
Planning Director Linda Albrand presented a fee study showing the town currently recovers about 37% of planning case processing costs; her proposal raises fees (largest increases for waivers) to recover approximately 85% of estimated costs and will be introduced as an ordinance for council consideration.
Avon — Town Planning Director Linda Albrand told the Town Council on Jan. 8 that the planning department’s current fee structure recovers a fraction of staff costs and proposed a fee schedule that would bring recovery to about 85% of estimated processing costs.
Albrand reviewed a staff time computation and said the low end of actual staff cost per case exceeds $2,000, while the 2025 average fee taken in was about $815, roughly 37% of estimated cost. Her proposal would raise many fees, with the largest single increases proposed for waiver requests, which require cross‑department review and are time‑intensive. She said the proposed schedule was based on internal cost analysis rather than comparisons to neighboring communities, though she provided a comparative table for council reference.
Why it matters: Increasing fees would reduce the subsidy of development review services borne by general taxpayers and help the planning department cover processing costs. Linda and staff said changes would be introduced in an ordinance and could be applied retroactively to cases still open at adoption, if council chooses.
What the council did: Council members thanked staff for the analysis and directed the planning department to prepare ordinance language; staff said the building department would review its fees on a similar timeline and that fines and other fees are also under review.
Next steps: Staff will draft and introduce an ordinance to adopt the new fee schedule and provide supplemental analysis on the effect of new fees on 2024 and 2025 revenue.
