Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Planning Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Planning director recommends 23% fee adjustment, new $165 performance‑guarantee fee and discounts for conditional zoning in character districts
Summary
Planning Director BJ Greve told council the department currently recovers about 50% of review costs on average and recommended a 23% fee adjustment for inflation, a $165 processing fee for subdivision performance guarantees (34% cost recovery of a $485 average), and a 50% administrative fee discount for conditional zoning projects inside character districts; staff will move the draft to public comment.
Planning Director BJ Greve presented a revised planning fee schedule at the June 24 work session after an analysis of average actual costs for permit and review processes.
Greve said the town currently recovers roughly 50% of staff costs on average. He recommended a 23% across‑the‑board adjustment to reflect cumulative CPI increases from 2019–2024, deletion of obsolete line items, and a new $165 fee to process subdivision performance guarantees (the average actual cost of processing a guarantee is about $485). Greve proposed setting the $165 fee to align with the percentage charged for final plats (approximately 34% of average actual cost) and rounding all fees to the nearest $10 for convenience.
Greve also proposed an incentive for higher‑quality design: a 50% reduction in the administrative fee for conditional zoning applications sited within adopted character‑district overlays. He explained that tying the discount to character districts is legally and policy‑wise more defensible under the town’s comp plan than a blanket discount.
Council asked practical questions about cash versus bank bonds (Greve said roughly 25% of guarantees are cash bonds and 75% bank/bonding company instruments) and about the number and size of guarantees (the town handles about a half dozen a year and more than half are under $10,000). Council gave staff authorization to proceed with required public‑notice and comment procedures; no formal vote was taken on the fee schedule at the work session.
Staff will prepare the non‑redline version of the revised schedule and run the state‑required public comment period for subdivision fee changes, then return to council with any input.
