06/20/2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

• Development Review Fees The third item involves development review fees. Indian River County's current development application fees have not been updated since 2004 and are significantly lower than application fees charged by other counties in the area (see attachment #4). Development review fees were updated in 1990 and 14 years later when they were next updated in 2004 the Board directed staff to update them more often... every 4 years. The 2004 update included a development application schedule used by Community Development and a separate fee schedule used by Public Works for stormwater permits, right-of-way permits, and site inspections. However, when the 4 year update timeframe came around in 2008, the county had entered what turned out to be a deep and long recession. Consequently, it was decided to keep review fees low and "un -updated" at that time. Now, 13 years out, review fees cover only a small portion of the staff time involved in reviewing, processing, inspecting, and closing -out development review projects. Staff has drafted a preliminary development application review fee update for current development application types using the same methodology employed during the 1990 and 2004 fee updates. That methodology calculates for each specific application type the labor cost (salary and benefits) of each staff position involved based on the increment of time that staff position spends on the "average" development project application from beginning to C.O. Staff positions from various departments are used in the fee calculation; Fire Prevention reviews are not included in the calculated fees since Fire Prevention charges separate fees for its development application reviews. Also calculated into the preliminary fee schedule are the costs of advertising and mailed notice which applies to certain application types, and the additional costs of certain application types that may require a special PZC review. Staff's preliminary update indicates that development review fees need to increase substantially from the current fees set in 2004. Even so, the preliminary updated fees for Indian River County will still be generally lower than fees charged in nearby counties (see attachment #6). If the preliminary updated fees (full calculated costs) had been charged for development applications submitted in the last 12 months, staff estimates that an additional. $221,731.61 of revenue from development review fees would have been received during that 12 month period (see attachment #5). Such revenue increase would help financially sustain needed increases in development review staffing levels to get faster development review turnaround times. The need for staffing increases, quicker review times, and development review fee increases were discussed at the April 12" workshop. Staff proposes that, after public input, a finalized and updated Community Development fee schedule be considered by the Board in September. That schedule will include an update of other application types handled by Community Development such as comprehensive plan amendments, rezonings, concurrency certificates, and environmental permits. In addition, Public Works has evaluated its costs and fees as it relates to the building permit review and inspection process and the land development review and inspection process and has found that there is a significant revenue shortfall. That evaluation and preliminary fee information will be presented to the Board by the Public Works Director at the June 20, 2017 meeting (see attachment #8). An updated, finalized and updated Public Works fee schedule will need to be considered by the Board in September as well as a complete and updated Community Development fee schedule. C:\Users\GRANIC-1 WppData\Local\Temp\BCL Technologies\easyPDF 7\@BCL@340595C8\@BCL@340595C8.docx 3 P173