ORDNC-2026-3 : Amending City Ordinance to Implement a new schedule of fees for Zoning and Conservation Permits

Transcript (~7 min @ 39:10)

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▶ 39:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Moving to ordinances, um, ID number 12 9 42, amending city ordinance to implement a new schedule of fees for zoning and conservation permits

▶ 39:26 Speaker 9: do

▶ 39:35 Maya Jamaleddine: maa. Good evening.

▶ 39:37 Speaker 6: Hello. Good evening. I'm Lori Masa, the director of, um, uh, office of Planning and Community Development. Um, and I'm joined here tonight by Brian Thorpe, who's the chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Yes,

▶ 39:48 Maya Jamaleddine: Good night. Good evening for both of you.

▶ 39:52 Speaker 6: So we're here tonight to request, um, amendments to the city Administrative legislation, legislation to increase the fees for boards and committee staff by the Office of Planning and Community Development, which have, um, fees that are, uh, in the code. Um, this is in response to Mayor Gregor's request for all boards to review their fees last spring, um, due to the budget shortfalls. So the zoning board of Appeals, the planning board and the Conservation Commission, um, reviewed and voted on fees considering the advertising costs for legal notices for the applications before the boards, the length of time since the last increase, and the rates charged by other municipalities. The zoning board of appeals added fees for multiple variance requests, time extensions, revisions, repetitive petitions. The planning board, um, in decreased the base fee by, for square footage for the site plan approval process, which resulted in increased fees for that permit. Added new, um, site plan approval fees for accessory dwelling units, increased marijuana use, special permit fees, um, and added fees for time extensions, modifications, repetitive petitions, and increased fees for, um, subdivisions, which was, which were very low. The Conservation Commission added fees for their most common type of application, the request for determination, um, and the increased fees for notice of intent, permitt extensions, um, amending order of conditions and added fees for certificates of compliance. So I'm happy to answer any questions, um, that anyone has about the fees.

▶ 41:32 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes, thank you. Any, uh, one from my colleague have any

▶ 41:40 Maya Jamaleddine: question saying none? I do. Oh, you do. Go ahead. Okay. Um, do we, um, made me forget, um, now it, I, I hear you that this due to the, um, budget, um, shortage and if, if the override passes, are we going to move it back to what it was? Or are we considering keeping the same changes?

▶ 42:09 Speaker 6: We would keep the same fees that we're proposing right now. Um, we did look at what other municipalities charge and felt that the proposed fees are reasonable, so we wouldn't, um, we wouldn't pull back on them.

▶ 42:24 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. Um, so, so now I'm, I'm just for the, uh, public that's watching us, um, referring that this, these changes are due to the shortage in budget that we are having is one of the reasons, but the other reasons is also in comparison with other municipalities. We are on the lowest, um, that we are charging fees. Is that what it is? Right.

▶ 42:48 Speaker 6: We are in the lower end. Um, it's also been quite some time since the fees have been increased. So, um, we felt that it was, you know, reasonable to increase them, um, even if the override passes.

▶ 43:00 Maya Jamaleddine: Perfect. And what about, um, you know, um, seniors, uh, older adults or, um, low income? What are the recommendation that we're providing with those, um, increases?

▶ 43:15 Speaker 6: So we did consider the, um, the typical applicant of these different kinds of land use permits. And so for kind of the, um, smaller scale projects where, you know, um, a resident, you know, of a, a single family, two family, kind of the non-commercial uses, um, they generally have lower fees and then the larger developments have higher fees. So that's kind of how the, the fees were viewed. Um, these kinds of permits are typically for, um, you know, altering structures or, um, doing some kind of work for property. So, um, we, you know, it's somebody that's requesting to be spending money on their property to enhance it or, or make it typically make it bigger or, um, something like that. So, um, those are, um, you know, if somebody wants to do that kind of a project, they typically have the, the funds in order to proceed with that kind of a work. Mm-hmm.

▶ 44:16 Maya Jamaleddine: So what I'm hearing is you are already can, taking into consideration and, uh, between the commercial, uh, use or permits and the residential permit, that is, you're kind of separating between both. Yes. And, um, there is no recommendation for senior, uh, older adults? No. Okay. Okay. I don't have any other questions. What is the will, uh, counselor? Sorry,

▶ 44:44 Kimberly Vandiver: I just, your line of questioning I thought of one as well. Um, I was curious as far as the budget impact, um, if given recent trends, if you could attempt to kind of estimate per year what this change would bring us in additional funds.

▶ 45:02 Speaker 6: So we don't have control over how many applications, um, we get. So it, it would be kind of just a, a guess. Um, it's not, it's not going to be a whole lot of money. It would, you know, probably be a few thousand dollars. Um, so, you know, again, this isn't gonna save the city, um, by increasing the fees, but it is, it is something. So, um, we thought it was important to move forward with it.

▶ 45:25 Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 45:27 Speaker 9: Uh, councilor gpe, I'll make a motion to recommend.

▶ 45:31 Maya Jamaleddine: Second, I have a motion to recommend made by Vice Chair GPE and by Councilor gpe and seconded by councilor, um, RO, um, on discussion, seeing none.