Churchill County workshop proposes broad fee increases; water-dedication rules seen as key barrier to development

Churchill County Board of County Commissioners convened a workshop in January 2026 to review a proposed update to the county's planning, public works and building fee schedules that would raise many permit and mapping fees and clarify water-dedication and connection charges.

Randy (Planning/Public Works staff), who led the presentation, told commissioners the county's planning and public-works fee schedule "hasn't been updated in approximately 20 years," and that building permit flat fees have not been revised for about eight years. He said staff analyzed each application to separate hard costs — printing notices, postage, newspaper advertising, and survey review — from soft costs such as administrative processing, planner review and meeting attendance, and then calculated proposed fees to recover those costs.

"If somebody wants to apply for a special use permit, they should at least pay bare minimum the hard cost it takes to process these applications," Randy said, describing examples including a $67 hard-cost estimate for a general special-use permit and roughly $700 in hard costs for a conditional use permit that requires newspaper advertising.

Staff presented a spreadsheet that compared current fees, calculated…