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Council pauses vote on revised master fee schedule after developers and business district raise objections
Summary
The finance department presented a new cost allocation plan and a revised master fee schedule that would increase many plan‑check and permitting fees to recover service costs. Business district and developer speakers said proposed permit fees are higher than nearby cities and risk stalling projects; council voted to continue the item for more review and for staff to respond to developer questions.
Finance director Tom O'Koo presented a city‑wide cost allocation plan and an updated master fee schedule intended to align permit and service fees with staff time and cost recovery. The update included a list of residential‑related building fees and an option for limited subsidies to remove barriers to permitting compliance.
Tom explained council had asked for additional time for the developer community to review proposed fees and for staff to evaluate targeted subsidies. He noted outreach to stakeholders and that staff responded to several developer queries by email but did not reach technical consensus. The staff analysis indicated that subsidizing a selected set of residential permit fees would reduce general‑fund revenue by an estimated approximately $96,000 per year.
Representatives of the Ravenswood Shores business district and developers urged the council to delay and to reexamine plan‑check and permit‑fee methodologies: they provided side‑by‑side comparisons showing substantial differences with permit charges in neighboring cities and cautioned that large increases could threaten project feasibility. The interim building official explained the new, fully‑staffed cost model used by the consultant differs from prior ad‑hoc, time‑and‑materials figures used for specific city‑led affordable projects.
After extended debate about competitiveness with neighboring jurisdictions, fiscal impacts and the mechanics of plan review for complex projects, council moved to continue the master fee schedule item to the next regular meeting so staff can respond in writing to technical concerns and provide comparative benchmarking and scenarios for targeted subsidies.
What’s next: Staff will collect the written questions from developers and business representatives, perform a targeted benchmarking analysis and return with a revised proposal and the subsidy scenarios at the next meeting.
