Clayton council adopts FY26 fee schedule to recover service costs

The Town of Clayton council on Dec. 11 adopted an update to the FY26 comprehensive list of fees intended to recover the town’s costs for several services.

Todd Melton, the town’s budget manager, told the council the list is “sort of our inventory of all the different fees and charges that the town assesses” and described proposed additions including fire-inspection fees, plan-review charges and permit fees linked to North Carolina fire-protection-code requirements. Melton said the town had not been collecting some of those fees previously and the changes were meant to align charges with the statutory grant language and cost recovery.

Melton also said the police department will add a golf-cart registration fee pending adoption of a separate ordinance, and parks-and-recreation changes include clarifying language and new rental fees for a bocce court and shuffleboard courts as well as adjustments for a Clayton High basketball court and East Clayton Community Park baseball field rentals. He pointed listeners to an online “comprehensive list of fees” tool maintained by the town.

A council member moved to adopt Ordinance 2025-12-06 and the council approved it by voice vote.

The fee changes are framed as administrative steps to recover costs and align language with state code and grant terms; the town said one service area (community development) was moved to a later amendment because additional noticing was needed. The public hearing on the amendment was opened and closed with no speakers.

The ordinance takes effect according to the town’s standard ordinance-adoption procedures and implementation scheduling.