Clallam County contractors and developers face higher fees for building and planning permits as the county Department of Community Development moves to make the permit process self-supporting.
Permit fees cover only about 70 percent of their costs, a shortfall of about $460,000 in 2004 and as much as $600,000 in previous years.
Furthermore, Clallam County’s building permits cost about half of some other Washington counties’ permits. Planning permits cost as little as a quarter of those in similar jurisdictions.
Commissioners will continue discussing the fees and a reorganization of the Department of Community Development in their work session starting at 9 a.m. today in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Specific fee changes are still under discussion — and will be for at least another week — but DCD director Rob Robertson sketched some examples for building permit fees:
* The builder of a 1,500-square-foot house with 500-square-foot garage, valued at $92,130 in 1999, would have paid $991 for a permit and plan check under the old fee structure. The same house, valued at $110,172 in 2002, would cost its builder $1,721 in new fees.
* A 12,000-square-foot office building, valued at $706,440 in 1999, would cost $5,329 in fees. Fees on the same building valued at $841,560 would total $8,016.
Robertson is likely to propose changes to planning permit fees today. He has said they will be “significant.”
Extra revenue
The extra revenue would fund wages of an associate planner, two code compliance workers, and two permit technicians. A special projects coordinator and a code enforcement officer would be eliminated.
“With these two additional positions, we could have a bona fide permit center,” Robertson told commissioners last week, referring to streamlining the permitting process for builders.
Robertson also would outsource some plan-review work during peak building years and seasons.
Permit renewals, which now cost $10 and can stretch out for 10 to 15 years, would be pegged at half of the original permit costs and be good for only four years.
