PORT ANGELES — The City Council at its Tuesday meeting will once again consider requiring all businesses to pay for a license more than three years after it last tabled the issue.
If the measure is approved, Port Angeles would join two other cities on the North Olympic Peninsula — Sequim and Port Townsend — that require every business to be licensed with City Hall.
The Port Angeles City Council will meet at 6 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The city has a limited business license ordinance now that covers about 150 businesses.
Those businesses fall under 18 categories, such as ambulances, dance halls that serve liquor, taxis and pawn shops.
Additional fee
Staff said requiring every business to be licensed with City Hall would benefit the city, and anyone interested in setting up shop in Port Angeles, by providing a list of exactly how many businesses there are and what services they provide.
But it also would mean an additional fee, which could range between $35 and $50 the first year, with a smaller renewal rate each year thereafter.
The City Council considered a similar proposal in 2007, but decided then that it needed to be studied further.
It had been discussed again this year during the council’s budget workshops, said City Manager Kent Myers, and was placed on Tuesday’s agenda at the request of City Council member Cherie Kidd.
In a voice message Friday, Kidd referred to the proposal as an “economic development tool.”
“If someone wants to come to Port Angeles and wants to know how many beauty shops we have, storage units — whatever type of business — it’s a way for us to be able to recruit businesses and tell them what we have,” she said.
New fees
Kidd added, “My main concern is that we keep the charges very low.”
She did not return several phone calls Saturday requesting further comment.
Craig Johnson, a Port Angeles Business Association board member and past president, said Saturday that he didn’t know enough about the proposal to take a firm position, but he added that it may not be the best time to create new fees.
“The economy is hurting, so now is probably not the time to do that,” he said.
City Clerk Janessa Hurd, who handles licenses for the city, said the fee is intended to cover the time it takes staff to process an application.
Licenses must be approved or denied within five days, she said.
The fee for the city’s current license — which applies to businesses that require additional regulation — is $25. It hasn’t changed since the 1980s, Hurd said.
Sequim charges $75 for a business license, while Port Townsend charges $28.
Port Townsend and Sequim both contract with the state Department of Licensing for the service.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
