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Commissioners request review of building-permit fee ordinance after John Deere permit dispute
Summary
A commissioner asked staff to review a decades-old building-permit fee ordinance after a developer (John Deere) received an unusually large permit bill; staff said fees are based on a national construction-cost standard and recommended a staff review and explanation at a future meeting.
A commissioner raised concerns about a permit-fee discrepancy after John Deere received what was described in the discussion as an approximately $1.5 million building-permit bill. The commissioner said the developer reported a different calculation method was used for a cold-storage project and asked staff to review why the county’s calculation yielded such a high fee.
Staff explained the county’s ordinance relies on a national standard of construction costs and that the county’s fee schedule can produce higher totals when construction costs for a project are greater than the standard baseline. The ordinance was identified as older (adopted in 1988) and staff recommended asking Ned (per staff) to provide an explanation and to review the ordinance and fee calculations.
Commissioners agreed to examine the ordinance and how permit fees are assessed, and asked staff to return with a review of the ordinance and any proposed adjustments to better align fee calculations with current construction-cost realities.
Next steps: staff to ask Ned to explain the permit-fee calculation and review the building-permit fee ordinance for potential updates.
