The Culver Town Council members considered a permit fee relief request from Rob Hurford from Culver Storage Solutions.
He previously went before the Culver Town Council members at their first meeting in October to ask for leniency in the town’s permit fees for the construction of storage units at West Jefferson Street and State Road 17.
During that meeting, he said that permits are needed by the county and the Town of Culver which will total about $17,000. The 14 storage units are permitted as a separate permit and it will be 65,000 square feet when completed. He commented at the time that the town’s permit fees were much higher than other surrounding communities with similar projects.
At that meeting, the council members encouraged Hurford to go before the Culver Plan Commission to plead his case and then they can make a decision on whether or not to forward a recommendation to the Culver Town Council for any sort of adjustment.
Hurford said he appealed to the Culver Plan Commission who sent a favorable recommendation to the council to amend the fees to $250 per unit for this case.
Councilman Rich West noted that the adjustment is consistent with a proposed revision of fees to be presented by Building Commissioner Steve Gorski.
Council President Bill Cleavenger commented that he is in favor of the project but was not in favor of making a special exception, even though an amendment in fees is proposed for 2024.
The council voted 4-1 to approve the recommendation by the Culver Plan Commission to amend the fees to $250 per unit for this case. Cleavenger was the lone dissenting vote.
Later in the meeting, Building Commissioner Steve Gorski presented an amendment to the building permit and improvement location fees for the Town of Culver. He presented it to the Culver Plan Commission who voted unanimously for the fees to be reviewed by the council. The fees had not been updated since 2018. Some updates coincide with a fee update recently amended at the county level, but most are specific to Culver. He said the amendments better reflect real costs associated with processing applications. In some cases, some fees are reduced. In other cases, some have increased. The amended fee schedule will be published and a public hearing will be held during the council’s next meeting Tuesday, November 14 to take comments on the proposed amendments.
