Planning commission recommends 2026–27 land‑use fee schedule with targeted edits

The Immigration Canyon Planning Commission recommended that the City Council adopt a consolidated 2026–27 land‑use fee schedule, but asked staff to remove portions of the master schedule that do not apply to Immigration Canyon and to correct formatting and redline errors.

The recommendation, made at the commission’s July 9 meeting, followed a staff presentation of changes to specific fees and to how fees are administered. The commission asked that references to other municipalities and items not allowed in Immigration Canyon be removed before the council considers the ordinance. The commission voted to recommend approval subject to those edits; the motion passed unanimously as recorded in the meeting.

MSD staff described several substantive adjustments in the proposed schedule, saying, “So what we did first was change to the reinspect fee from $50 to $100 and then the overtime after‑hours inspection from $1.20 to $1.50,” and explaining the increases reflect additional staff time, vehicle use and fuel for inspections in outlying communities. Staff also explained that plan‑check fees are structured around up to four review cycles and that the plan‑check charge is calculated as 65% of the building‑permit fee and is assessed in addition to the base permit calculation.

Staff explained changes to enforcement language to clarify penalties for ‘‘violating a stop work order or building or grading without a permit,’’ and said the clarification is intended to deter post‑hoc, unpermitted construction. As staff put it, the revised wording is meant to ‘‘dissuade people from that attitude of, you know, ask permission, ask for forgiveness later.’’

The proposed fee schedule also moves many numeric fees out of the municipal code and into a single fee schedule document that the council would adopt and that staff can update more easily. Engineering plan‑check fees were revised from a percentage‑of‑bond model to a scaled fee (for subdivisions and acreage‑based charges) to avoid very large outlier calculations for massive projects and to better align fees with staff effort.

Commissioners focused substantial attention on portions of the master document that do not apply to Immigration Canyon. Several commissioners noted the draft still contains references to other MSD jurisdictions (for example, Kearns or Brighton), to UDOT permits (where no state roads exist in the city), and to licensing tables for short‑term rentals and sexually oriented businesses (SOBs) that Immigration Canyon does not intend to permit. Commissioner Jody moved that the commission recommend approval of the fee schedule “with changes as follows: move short term rental licenses, [sexually oriented business] oriented business licenses, references to UDOT, Brighton, Kearns, and other MSD municipalities that are not Immigration Canyon, and other language that is irrelevant to Immigration Canyon.” The motion was seconded and approved.

Commissioners clarified that recommending the edits does not change policy on short‑term rentals or SOBs; it asks staff and the city attorney to remove inapplicable tables and wording so the published fee schedule is specific to Immigration Canyon. Staff and commissioners said the City Council retains final authority and may modify the schedule when it acts on the ordinance.

Next steps: staff will produce a cleaned, community‑specific version of the schedule that removes nonapplicable fees and references and will include a table of the commission’s recommended edits for the council to review. The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for action.