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Rowlett staff propose suite of new fees, citing state law and peer benchmarks
Summary
City staff presented updates to Rowlett’s master fee schedule including new development fees, modest reinspection increases and adjusted food‑service permit rates to align with state caps; council pressed for written cost justifications and examples of how neighboring cities embed notice costs in application fees.
City staff presented proposed changes to Rowlett’s master fee schedule at the Dec. 15 work session, seeking to add several fees the city currently does not charge and to align others with state law and neighboring municipalities. Derek, the community development director, told council the review benchmarked Wiley, Sachse, Rockwall, Garland, Mesquite, Plano and Richardson and identified gaps such as commercial backflow prevention and temporary certificates of occupancy that the city does not currently charge for.
"The master fee schedule was updated 09/02/2025," Derek said in opening the presentation and described a mix of new fees and modest increases for existing services — for example, a reinspection fee for small projects proposed to rise from $50 to $60 to match peer ordinances. Staff emphasized that several changes respond to new state requirements for environmental health permits and that some previously charged fees must be removed where legislation prohibits them.
Council members pressed for better public justification of the numbers. One council member asked whether the state change was a cap or a recommended level; another explicitly asked for the written cost basis tying fees to staff time and overhead. "It's a cap," a council member said during the discussion, and staff agreed to publish notes explaining how each fee was calculated, including average staff-hours and indirect costs, if the council adopts the schedule.
Staff also proposed separating public‑hearing notice costs from application fees so the city can recover explicit mailing and publication costs when required by statute; staff said some neighboring cities embed those notification costs in larger application fees rather than listing them separately. Council asked staff to show examples of how other cities bundle notice costs into their application fees so the public can compare total costs across jurisdictions.
The council did not act on the schedule at the session; staff indicated the ordinance will return to a regular meeting in January for formal consideration.
