Planning Commission backs updated building permit and inspection fee schedule; asks staff to fix wording and remove a footnote

Planning staff presented a consolidated update to the city's building and fee schedule that would add flat fees for small permits, revise plan-review charges for identical or fit-out reviews, tighten reinspections charges, and allow the building official some latitude to charge actual-cost fees in exceptional situations. Brandon noted that the International Code Council's valuation table had changed and staff adjusted local schedules accordingly.

Staff gave the helical-pier example to illustrate why some review cases may need an actual-cost approach: the building official cited an instance where a helical-pier remediation for a single home had a $250,000 valuation, and the official said charging a large valuation-based fee would be unreasonable. "The helical pier system is gonna cost $250,000," staff said, explaining the request for a lesser-of or an actual-cost adjustment. Commissioners asked for a small editorial fix (truncated sentence in the plan-review asterisk) and clarification of a finance-department asterisk tied to a water-rate line. The commission voted 5-0 to forward the fee schedule to Council with the two deletions recommended by staff and instructions to correct the identified text before final adoption.