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STAFF ANALYSIS <br />COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT FEE <br />As proposed, the comprehensive plan amendment procedures closely <br />correspond to the County's existing rezoning process. Although <br />there are a few procedural differences between the two processes, <br />® both involve the same basic activity; that is, assessing existing <br />and projected conditions to determine the reasonableness of <br />changing the designated use of a parcel of land. In fact, an <br />amendment to the Future Land Use Element of the Comprehensive <br />Plan oftentimes necessitates a rezoning of the land area <br />involved. , I <br />Since both the plan amendment and rezoning processes are <br />comparable, the current charges for rezoning requests were used <br />as a basis for developing the comprehensive plan amendment fee <br />structure. Besides the rezoning charges, several other criteria <br />were also considered in developing the plan amendment fee <br />schedule. <br />As with rezonings, the cost of reviewing a plan amendment <br />proposal varies with the complexity of the request, the size of <br />the land area involved, and type of use proposed for the <br />property. Because the complexity of a proposed amendment is <br />influenced by a number of characteristics and because the <br />proposed use does not always provide an adequate indication of <br />the cost to review the request, neither was used as a basis for <br />establishing fees. Instead, the size of the parcel was chosen as <br />the factor upon which land use amendment application fees would <br />be based. <br />For a typical amendment request, the staff time and cost required <br />for review increase as the size of the parcel involved in the <br />request increases. This relationship, however, is not constant. <br />Rather than varying with any increase in land area, staff time <br />and cost requirements for review more closely correspond to <br />general categories of land size. In fact, if all other <br />characteristics are equal, most proposed amendments involving <br />small parcels will require similar amounts of staff time for <br />review and produce similar costs. Time and cost requirements are <br />also relatively constant for amendment requests involving <br />moderate sized land areas, for amendment requests involving <br />medium sized land areas, and for amendment requests involving <br />large sized land areas. <br />Generally, comprehensive plan amendment requests involving smi-.11 <br />areas, usually five acres or less, will not require as extensive <br />an analysis as larger areas. Small land areas will often have <br />less diversity in terms of site characteristics, fewer and less <br />extensive environmental problems, and fewer adjacent land areas <br />whose present or proposed use affects the amendment request. As <br />the size of the parcel increases, more characteristics are <br />considered in greater detail during the review process. In plan <br />amendment requests involving medium and large sized land areas, <br />extensive analysis of utilities, access, and environmental <br />factors substantially increases the staff time and cost <br />associated with the review process. Increases in review costs, <br />however, seem to peak with large-sized land areas; for tracts <br />exceeding 100 acres, it is assumed that review costs remain <br />relatively constant. <br />Based upon the above analysis, four categories of specific <br />comprehensive plan amendment requests were delineated. These <br />consist of small parcels, moderate sized land areas, medium sized <br />land areas, and large land areas. For each category, a separate <br />fee has been set. These fees then generally reflect the <br />differences in staff time and costs associated with review of <br />comprehensive plan amendment requests in each category. Unlike <br />the County's current fee structure for rezoning requests, <br />