Laserfiche WebLink
<br />15 <br />Planning Fees <br />Services Provided by the Division <br />The Planning Division maintains and implements the City’s Zoning Code and prepares other specialized <br />planning documents. The division reviews development requests for conformance with the City's <br />planning policies and standards. Division staff oversee the City’s current and long range planning <br />efforts. The costs of providing fee-related services, such as fence modifications, site plan reviews, <br />conditional use permits, and planned development review are proposed to be recovered from fees. The <br />costs associated with advanced planning initiatives are covered by a Community Planning Fee based on <br />construction valuation. Costs associated with non-fee related services are proposed to be paid from <br />other sources, typically the City’s General Fund revenues. <br /> <br />Planning Fees: Study Outcomes and Recommendations <br /># Finding / Recommendation Description <br />1 Current deposit-based fees recover <br />less than the full cost of providing <br />services <br /> Deposit-based fees are typically used for complex projects <br /> Deposit-based fees are billed based on staff hours logged to <br />a particular application <br /> The hourly rates for deposit-based billings currently recover <br />82% of the cost of service <br />2 Current flat fees recover less than <br />the full cost of providing services <br /> Flat fees are collected for projects that typically exhibit less <br />variability in processing time than deposit-based fee services <br /> Current recovery for flat (fixed) fee services varies widely. <br />Cost recovery levels range from ≈10% for building permit <br />plan checking to ≈ 50% for view preservation review. <br />3 Leave Community Planning Fee <br />unchanged <br /> Although the study indicates the Community Planning Fee <br />currently recovers ≈87% of recoverable costs, no change is <br />currently recommended for this fee. The current cost <br />recovery levels are based on a five-year average of <br />construction values. For the last two years, construction <br />values have increased. If construction values remain stable <br />or continue to improve, cost recovery will be enhanced <br />without a modification required to the existing fee. <br />4 Use a phase-in approach to increase <br />cost recovery levels over a multi- <br />year period <br /> Increase deposit-based fee recovery from 82% to 91% <br /> Set majority of flat fees to recover 75% with long-term target <br />of full cost recovery <br /> This approach would enhance cost recovery levels, but avoid <br />attempting to recover the entire under-collection in a single <br />year. Instead it would use a series of increases over a multi- <br />year period to reach targeted cost recovery levels. <br /> This approach allows the City to easily identify service areas <br />27