The Planning Division and Public Works Department continue to strive to provide the best customer and application review services in a cost-effective and timely manner. The new fees proposed by the Public Works Department and the fee increases proposed by the Public Works Department and Planning Division are in response to the ongoing and increasing costs to provide services to the development community and the community at large.

Subdivision Fee Changes
Historically, the Planning Division collected fees for subdivision reviews and transferred a fixed amount to Public Works annually for review of the subdivisions. The fee was not based on the number or type of subdivision received, so the amount was too high based on actual effort in years with little subdivision activity and too low in years with average or high activity. The idea behind breaking the subdivision fees down into charges from Planning and charges from Public Works is to have the actual revenue that go to Public Works and Planning more closely reflect actual effort of subdivision review. Because the fee was not separated before, the increase for the Public Works fee cannot be defined by a percentage. The proposed fees are based on the effort historically expended on the review of a typical subdivision.

Planning estimates that it could collect about $17,000 in new revenues in FY13 under the new fee schedule if it saw the same level of subdivision activity in FY13 that has occured in FY12. Engineering estimates that it could collect about $1,500 in new revenues in FY 13 under the new fee schedule if it saw the same level of subdivision activity in FY13 as in FY12.

Other Fee Changes
The Public Works Department is proposing increases in fees for site plan review and traffic plan review for FY13.  The cost to provide the services was reviewed this year and many of the fees remained the same because they adequately cover the cost of the review and inspections for typical situations.  There are a few services that historically require more time and expense than is recovered through the fees.  The proposed fees are set at amounts to recover the costs of typical services and will not require other funding sources to subsidize these services.

The City Council last increased the Planning Division’s overall fees in 2010. At that time, the fees were increased 4%. At the direction of the City Council, the Division is proposing fee increases on a more regular basis to reduce the impact of larger increases on the community and to better keep up with increases in the costs of providing these services. The 4% increase in Planning Division fees will help offset a 3% increase in operations and maintenance costs and about a 5% increase in personnel costs for the Division for FY13.

Planning estimates that it could collect about $4,000 in new revenues in FY13 under the new fee schedule if it saw the same level of general application/permit activity in FY13 that has occured in FY12. Engineering estimates that it could collect about $5,800 in new revenues in FY 13 under the new fee schedule if it saw the same level of site plan review and traffic plan review activity in FY13 as in FY12.