The Planning Division is presenting an updated fee schedule and associated resolution to the City Council for Fiscal Year 2019. 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 Yellowstone County Board of County Commissioners. The Planning Division is proposing a 10% increase in most of its fees. The Planning Division’s fees were last increased in 2016. At that time, the fees were increased 6%. 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 10% increase will help offset increasing personnel and operating costs and reflect the true cost of review and processing applications.   Attachment 2 provides an informational sheet on the changes in fees, including a comparison between Planning's current fees and the proposed 10% 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 Engineering Division charges fees for services as a part of the overall fee for each application and review.  The fees as presented in the resolution are reflective of an increase in the existing Engineering fee to be closer to the actual cost of providing the services.  

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

The proposed fees will help cover the costs to the Planning and Engineering Divisions to provide services, resulting in additional revenues for the Divisions when services are delivered to customers. The Divisions estimate about $25,000 in new revenues in FY19 under the new fee schedule based on the collected and estimated FY 18 level of zoning, subdivision, and annexation applications, and general permit and compliance review activity.  The change in costs to customers ranges from $3-$13 for some permits to $400-$500 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 2016. At that time, the fees were increased 6%. 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 10% fee increase proposed by the Planning Division for FY19 is in response to the ongoing and increasing costs to provide services to the development community and the community at large. The 10% increase in Planning Division fees for the next two years (FY19-FY20) will specifically help offset increases in personal services and operations and maintenance.   The Division is careful to 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 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 FY19 and FY20, reviewed other jurisdictions in Montana to see how fees in Billings align with fees in places like Bozeman, Missoula, Kalispell 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 and Engineering Divisions and the review and hearing schedule have been discussed with the Billings Home Builders Association Local Issues Committee. Information was provided in the Monthly Planning Report and informational emails were sent to the engineering and surveying community. The public hearing has been advertised.