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Klamath County adopts ordinance allowing utility right-of-way permit fees
Summary
After a second public hearing with no testimony, the Klamath County Board of Commissioners adopted Ordinance 42.04 to authorize utility right-of-way permit fees, citing Senate Bill 1566; staff said the fee is intended to cover review and inspection costs and is capped at $500 per new utility application.
Klamath County commissioners voted April 14 to adopt Ordinance 42.04, adding section 102.05 to the county code to authorize utility right-of-way permit fees on county roads.
The ordinance implements authority granted by Oregon Senate Bill 1566 (2024) and is intended to allow the county to recoup administrative costs for design review, issuance and compliance inspections for new utility work in county rights-of-way. Planning staff described the measure during a second public hearing and said the fee is designed to be competitively neutral and limited to cost recovery. “It is a small fee. I think it's capped at $500 per utility,” the planning representative stated during the staff report.
After the staff presentation the board opened the hearing for public testimony; no members of the public offered comments, and the hearing was closed. The board then moved to adopt the ordinance; the motion passed unanimously with no fiscal impact beyond publication costs reported earlier.
County staff said the fee applies to new utility installations and is not intended for repair of existing utilities. The ordinance directs the board to set and adjust specific permit fees by resolution in accordance with the cited ORS provisions.
