Zoning fee increases suggested for county

The Albemarle County Planning Commis-sion suggested major zoning ordinance fee increases Tuesday — but backed away from the even higher fees that had been advertised.

The commission recommended that about a third of the county’s cost for reviewing development applications should be paid for by applicants. The commission had advertised fees in which about 75 percent of the county’s costs would be recovered.

The Board of Supervisors will get the final say — as soon as next month.

“The question is, really, should the cost of this application review be paid for by people’s taxes, or should it be paid for by the applicants?” said Mark Graham, the county’s director of community development. “The cost is what it is, and the lower you set the fee, the more taxes you’re using to pay for that review.”

There hadn’t been a full review of the county’s fees since 1991, and county staff made recommendations that are compatible with fees in other localities.

However, speakers at Tuesday’s public hearing suggested the county examine whether too much money is being spent on the review process. Most of the costs come from the amount of time county officials have to spend on reviews.

Commissioner Linda Porterfield has said that 100 percent of the zoning review costs should be paid for by applicants.

“I’m not sure that the average taxpayer should be asked to fund” those applications, Porterfield said, adding that the county needs to find more ways to limit costs to taxpayers, considering that the county is already facing more than a $5 million budget shortfall this fiscal year.

If the costs of applications aren’t paid for by the applications, “I just don’t know where that money is going to come from, other than the taxpayers,” Porterfield said.

In a typical year, the county would have to charge $1.7 million to applicants in zoning ordinance fees to recover the county’s costs, according to Graham. The recommendation by the Planning Commission would have applicants pay for about $500,000 of those costs, with the rest of the money coming out of the county’s budget.

The Planning Commission recommended that the Board of Supervisors impose the increases beginning in fiscal 2011.

Neil Williamson, executive director of the Free Enterprise Forum, a local business advocacy and government watchdog organization, said that commission’s recommended fee increases will “negatively impact economic development.”

Williamson added that the county needs to consider the matter an “economic development” issue, pointing to some localities that are decreasing permit costs to encourage business development.

Under the Planning Commission’s recommendation, the fee for getting a permit to operate a home business in which there are one to two employees working at a residence — in addition to family members — would cost no more than $1,000. Under the advertised rate, the fee would have been $4,500, up from the current $440 fee.

In addition to accepting the county staff’s recommendation of recovering only a third of permit costs from the applicants, the commission also recommended other changes to lessen the blow, such as waiving fees for temporary fundraising events.