The City of Woodland is looking at possible changes to its permitting fees in order to complete an update started in 2016. The goal is to increase the percentage of the city’s planning budget funded through fee revenue.
City council hosted a workshop looking at city fees during their regular meeting July 2. The council directed the item to the city’s finance committee for them to come up with a final recommendation for a vote.
According to information provided to council, the city had begun to update its building fee schedule in 2016 though the process was not completed. The information showed that compared to adjacent municipalities, Woodland’s own fees were generally lower than the surrounding area. Compared to Cowlitz County, 70 percent of Woodland’s fees were cheaper. Compared to Ridgefield, 78 percent were less expensive. Ninty-five percent were less than those in Clark County.
Information from staff identified three different methods that the city could go with in implementing fee changes.
The staff’s preferred method would have more than a dozen fee changes, including 12 increases and two changes to an hourly rate which would be based on the time taken to process a permit.
Those changes were estimated at bringing in just over $20,000 in annual revenue to the planning department according to information presented to the council, which would bump up the percentage of the city’s planning costs covered by fees from about 25 to more than 38 percent.
Another method would be an across-the-board change with options at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 percent increases. That method would result in less revenue than the first option, between $2,175 and $10,875 annually depending on percentage.
A third option would look at the time it takes to process permits in order to determine fees. Staff time on a permit would be multiplied by a typical hourly rate to establish what the actual costs for processing a permit, though this would require staff to monitor their time in order to calculate fee estimates.
The types of permits with the potential for fee changes included things like annexation, site plan review, shoreline development and conditional use permits and zoning amendments among others. As per the recommendation of council and finance committee member Benjamin Fredricks the proposed fee changes will go to that committee before any action by council is made.
