Council hears and advances updates to Elk Grove development fees, shifting some services to time‑and‑materials billing

Elk Grove — Council held a public hearing on proposed updates to the city's schedule of development‑related fees designed to align charges with the city's actual cost of services. Christopher Jordan, the Community Development Director, told the council the existing fee schedule dated to about 2011 and that recent organizational changes — bringing planning and engineering services in‑house — support a shift to time‑and‑materials for some reviews.

Jordan said the move would let the city charge for actual staff time (using a fully burdened rate that includes salary step, benefits and a 49% overhead rate) and remove obsolete fees. "If you really do have a clean submittal, we're charging you less for that review because there's less city time review necessary," Jordan said, explaining the rationale for time‑and‑materials for improvement plan review and inspection services.

Council members asked for clarification about industry outreach and specific line items. Jordan said the revisions were presented to an industry working group in February and March and that no comments were received from that group; he explained that on‑site notice sign costs are passed through at the contractor's rate rather than being separately set in the fee schedule.

After discussion the council moved and seconded the proposed updates and advanced the item on a voice vote. No members of the public had signed up to speak during the hearing. Staff said implementing the new structure will better align revenue with workload and help capture the true cost of complex projects that require multiple review cycles.

What happens next: Council action advanced the updates presented at the hearing; staff will proceed with implementation details and coordinate with the city's development services and public works staff on administration and billing.