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Planning staff outlines options to revise fee schedule; council leans toward hybrid approach
Summary
Planning staff presented options to raise or restructure the town's permit fee schedule — full cost recovery, midpoint to actual costs, or CPI-based increases — and recommended staff refine proposals by permit type with policy guidance from council.
Planning Director BJ presented a review of development‑review fees and three primary approaches for the council to consider: (1) adjust fees to recover 100% of administrative review costs; (2) set fees at the midpoint between current fees and calculated costs; or (3) raise fees by a cumulative CPI amount (BJ cited ~23% through 2024).
BJ said state law allows charging administrative fees up to the actual cost of the work and that most jurisdictions subsidize some portion. "Very, very few jurisdictions... recover 100% of the actual cost," he said, noting that some permits — for example, watershed protection permits — have been deliberately subsidized as a public good in Southern Pines. BJ recommended consolidating similar permit types into tiered "level" permits (zoning permit level 1, level 2) and rounding fees to whole-dollar amounts for clarity.
Council discussion emphasized balancing fairness for homeowners (for example, fence permits) with cost recovery for complex reviews (major subdivision or zoning amendments). Members suggested a hybrid, targeted approach rather than a single across‑the‑board increase: raise fees selectively where private development primarily benefits and keep modest fees for routine homeowner permits. BJ said staff will prepare a detailed draft schedule and justification cells for council review at a future work session.
