Fees for building permits in Marshall County may soon be increasing.
Plan Director Ty Adley presented the amendments to the commissioners during their recent meeting as developed by the Planning Commission and BZA.
“The goal of the department is not over-generating funding, but having the project owner cover the cost rather than members of general public paying for the improvements through their taxes,” explained Adley. “Factors that were considered for Planning Commission and BZA cases you’re looking at the application assistance to review those applications, site visits, TRC time, advertising to the public and the paper, as well as the meetings themselves.”
He added the Planning Commission made some adjustments with the rezoning costs, and updating vacation and waiver request costs. Major and minor subdivision permit fees are being adjusted which includes Planned Unit Development. On the BZA side, all application permit fees will be updated including the solar farm application, and adding a fee to the flood hazard variance.
The fee adjustments were adjusted based on analysis of rates and schedules from several surrounding counties. Some adjustments are small, while others take a large jump.
The last major update to building permit fees was done over 10 years ago.
Paul Levett had a question concerning a wind farm permit since wind turbines are banned in Marshall County, but it was explained that it is better to have some documents in place “to protect the county” in case the General Assembly makes a decision in the future.
With that, the commissioners approved the first reading of the ordinance with a unanimous vote. The fees will be published and then the commissioners will consider the second and third readings in order to adopt the fees in a future meeting.
