City seeks to retool its permit fee process
June 21, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
New, June 21, 3:15 p.m.
Developers and residents owe the city $272,907 for building permit fees, according to Finance Director Lyman Howard.
The city’s current policy doesn’t require permit applicants to pay some fees until the end of the permitting process. In the past, that policy hasn’t created any major issues, but as of June 10, a slate of permit applicants are more than 120 days late in paying the city, Howard said at the City Council’s June 15 meeting.
Since 2001, the city has collected $18.4 million in application fees. The $272,907 in unpaid fees constitutes about 1.5 percent of those total revenues.
City Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay said she suspected part of the problem was that residents were surprised by the cost of the permit process. She said people have told her in the past that they experienced permit costs that exceeded what they planned to pay.
Howard proposed a the new permit fee process which he said would make the city’s system simpler and more predictable. It would also put the city back in compliance with state law, which does not allow the city to extend credit as it has been doing.
The new process would have four stages of fee collecting, Howard said.
Every stage would have some level of review, although more complex projects would entail more reviews and higher fees.
In the past, fees have been charged on hourly rates, but now they would be average fees based on the city’s past experience with permits of a similar nature.
Many of the council’s questions revolved around the averaging approach and how it seemed dangerously simplistic.
“I would be more comfortable with a fixed fee if there were more classifications built in,” City Councilwoman Nancy Whitten said.
“I can tell you that my gut reaction isn’t real supportive of this,” Whitten added. “When you start averaging out costs and so forth, somebody’s going to get the good side of that somebody’s going to get the bad side of that.”
City Councilman Lee Fellinge suggested that Howard and the Finance Department find some way of identifying outliers in the permitting process – projects that cost more time and money for the city to approve.
With 19 different classifications and flexibility built into the number of reviews needed per stage, the city would have ways of charging a higher fee for a more complex project, according to Howard.
Howard also stressed that the new process was not intended to be more costly to developers.
“We will be reviewing this as we go forward to make sure that we’re not over collecting or under collecting,” he said.
Howard said he would return to the council at the July 14 City Council study session with more information about the proposed change and with some examples about how it would work in practice.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
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