New Review and Inspection Fees as of July 1, 2008
As of July 1, 2008, Clean Water Services will charge new and revised review and inspection fees for development permit applications for everything from minor lot partitions and home additions to large residential, commercial and industrial developments. Clean Water Services (the District) staff conducts an environmental review for Service Provider Letters and reviews development plans to ensure standards are met for sanitary sewer and stormwater management construction within unincorporated areas of urban Washington County. The new fees are based on analysis of the staff time and expertise required to process development permits. Although the District evaluates and adjusts sanitary sewer and surface water management charges annually, it has been years since development services fees were updated.
“The new fee structure more closely reflects the true cost of doing business, has incentives for well-prepared applications, and has fewer separate fees,” said Nora Curtis, the department director who oversees the District’s development services staff.
“We took a long, hard look and decided we were charging little or nothing for many site development permit services provided by our staff. For example, the nominal erosion control inspection fee did not cover the expense of inspectors making repeat trips to construction sites.”
The new permit fee structure is more fair, according to Curtis. “Now there are incentives for complete permit applications that are ready to review, and disincentives for those that eat up a disproportionate amount of staff time and require multiple reviews.”
The proposed fees and fee structure were discussed with the development community at several of the District’s Development Liaison Committee meetings this Spring and several changes were made after receiving their comments.
The fees for engineering plan review are consolidated into three main categories: plan check, inspection, and permit processing. The environmental review fees now reflect the degree of difficulty of analysis, case by case.
For applications in progress, the old fees are in effect if the applicant received a fee letter before July 1, 2008.
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