The Planning Division is presenting an updated fee schedule and associated resolution to the City Council for Fiscal Year 2017. The resolution reflects increases in many existing fees in an effort to cover the costs of providing services to the community. These are proposed changes to fees within the City Limits only. Any changes to fees charged by the Planning Division in the County will be subject to approval by the Board of County Commissioners. The Planning Division is proposing a 6% increase in most of its fees. The Planning Division’s fees were last increased in 2014. At that time, the fees were increased 7%. At the direction of the City Council, the Division is proposing fee increases every two years to reduce the impact of larger increases on the community and to better keep up with increases in the costs of providing these services. A 6% increase will help offset cost of living increases for personnel that went into effect in FY16 and are expected to increase in both FY17 and FY18. Attachment 1 provides an informational sheet on the changes in fees, including a comparison between Planning's current fees and the proposed 6% increase. The Division has proposed some larger increases for a few of its permits that are currently significantly less that what it costs to provide the permit reviews and processing. The Division also has proposed several new fees for application or hearing processes the Division provides but has historically not collected a fee for the service.

The City Council may choose to:
1. Approve the resolution to update the existing fee schedule for the Planning Division.
2. Deny the resolution to update the existing fee schedule for the Planning Division.
3. Modify and approve the resolution to update the existing fee schedule for the Planning Division.

The proposed fees will help cover the costs for the Planning Division to provide services, resulting in additional revenues for the Division when services are delivered to customers. The Division estimates about $17,000 in new revenues in FY17 under the new fee schedule based on the 2015 level of zoning, subdivision, and annexation applications, and general permit and compliance review activity. This will offset about half of the annual $30,000 union and non-bargaining personnel cost increase. The change in costs to customers ranges from $15-$20 for some permits to $200-$300 for some larger subdivision applications (see Attachment 1).

The Planning Division continues to strive to provide the best customer and application review services in a cost-effective and timely manner. The City Council last increased the Planning Division’s overall fees in 2014. At that time, the fees were increased 7%. At the direction of the City Council, the Division is proposing fee increases every two years 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 6% fee increase proposed by the Planning Division for FY17 is in response to the ongoing and increasing costs to provide services to the development community and the community at large. The 6% increase in Planning Division fees for the next two years will specifically help offset a 3.2% increase in personnel costs for the Division in FY17 and a 3% increase in personnel costs in FY18. These personnel costs were about $30,000 for FY16 when the first cost of living increase under the latest bargaining contract took effect. The Division is careful to try and focus its fee increases on the costs for specific application and permit services completed by its staff and follows several guidelines:

• Fees should only cover permit and application processing
• Staff performs other duties funded from the County-Wide Planning Levy and the Federal Transportation Planning Program
• Many staff work on fee-based permits and applications, and transportation and community planning projects that are funded through the County-Wide Planning Levy and the Federal Transportation Planning Program, and this is a factor when estimating fee increases for the Division

Not all of the Division's fees increase under this proposal. Sign permit fees and exempt plat processing fees will remain the same. Sign permit fees are calculated on a square foot basis per sign size and generally cover review costs. Exempt plat fees are set by State Law at $200 and can only be changed by the Legislature.
 
The Planning Division in considering its fee proposal for FY17 and FY18 reviewed other jurisdictions in Montana to see how fees in Billings align with fees in places like Bozeman, Helena, Missoula and Great Falls. While fee structures are not all the same, and exact comparisons are not always possible even with the same types of applications, Billings fees are competitive - coming in lower than some communities in zoning fees and the same, or slightly higher, in some subdivision fees. Attachment 2 - City Fee Comparison - provides a basic look at the differences.

The proposed changes to the fee schedules for the Planning Division and the review and hearing schedule have been generally discussed with the Billings Home Builders Association Local Issues Committee and the public hearing has been legally advertised.