Fruitland board ponders new fees
City Council makes no final decision on matter
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:41 AM PDT
FRUITLAND — The Fruitland City Council postponed taking any action Monday night toward implementing two additional building permit fees pending more information from building official Dwayne Holloway.
Holloway proposed adding a plan review fee for all building plans and a fire life safety fee for commercial and industrial plans to the building permit process for the council’s consideration.
Currently, Holloway said, the city does not perform a plan review for building permits once they are first submitted to the city, nor does it perform a fire life safety review for commercial and industrial building permits. He proposed adding a fee structure of 65 percent of the building permit base rate to complete building plan reviews and a fee structure of 45 percent of the building permit base rate for fire life safety, although he told the council those fee structures were just based on what other cities in the Treasure Valley implement for their reviews and could be changed to suit the council. Holloway said, when he completed the city’s survey for the Idaho Surveying and Rating Bureau in January, he learned Fruitland’s rating could improve — possibly helping insurance rates in the city — by instituting the plan reviews. Currently the city’s rating from the Idaho Surveying and Rating Bureau is 6.
“It’s something that we haven’t ever done, and we have to do that for the plan review, if nothing else," Holloway said.
However, Holloway said instituting the additional reviews would increase his workload because of the time they would take, further necessitating the addition of another city building official.
“It takes a good deal of time to do a good plan review,” Holloway said.
Fruitland Mayor Tom Limbaugh asked at what point the city would need to hire a second building official. Holloway said he already asked for an assistant in the last budget process and will likely ask for one again, with or without the additional work. He said if his proposal was implemented, a second staff member would be critical to continue to perform duties for both Fruitland and Ontario, whom the city provides services for.
“This is definitely a way you’d fund that second position,” Fruitland City Clerk Rick Watkins told the council.
“This would pretty much guarantee it would be a self-sustaining department,” Watkins added, although council members said adding fees to generate more revenue would not be the basis for their decision. Council members discussed whether they wanted to move ahead with scheduling public hearings for the proposal, but a few still had questions they wanted Holloway to clarify.
Limbaugh said he wanted a break down of what services builders receive now under the current building permit structure and what they would receive additionally with the extra reviews and fees. Councilman Ken Bishop said he wanted to know what other cities were charging for the reviews before settling on a fee structure.
“I think there’s some necessity for it, but doubling the fee in one-fell swoop I’m a little concerned may be heavy-handed,” he said.
Watkins recommended the council hold off on public hearings on the matter until members have the information they want and most of their questions satisfied.
In other council action: The City Council approved an ordinance granting a request for reconsideration to applicants denied by the council various permits such as business licenses.
At the previous City Council meeting, the council agreed a one-time reconsideration limit should be placed on applicants, only effective within two weeks of them being denied their request.
That language was added to the ordinance, which passed without discussion. Limbaugh also swore in a new patrolman, Shawn Crawford, to the Fruitland Police Department at the beginning of the meeting.
