07/25/1979 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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! Mr. Delay said it was his understanding that the reason for the deficit was that the State sets maximum rates for the permits which forces the City to perform certain operations relating to the permits, but not charge e enough to cover these operations. Mr. Henry read Resolution No. 3200. Ms. Smith moved, seconded by Mr. Haws, to adopt the resolution. Ms. Miller said it would seem to make better sense to charge one plan checking fee at 50 percent rather than to have a diminished rate for master plans. She said the information included with the agenda on this subject said that three years ago fewer than half the cities in Oregon and only a third of the counties had a diminished rate for master plans. She said having one rate at 50 percent should reduce administrative needs and generate additional revenue. She suggested the City should not go out of its way to encourage master plans where all houses in a subdivision were built according to only several different plans. Ms. Miller moved, seconded by Mr. Haws, that the master plan discount provisions of Resolution No. 3200 be deleted. Mr. Henry said the purpose of those provision was to recognize that where there was greater cost to the City, there should be a greater charge. Mr. Nolte said there would be greater efficiency with the 30 percent master plan approach. He said builders wanted this plan and the Department felt now was the time to implement it. Ms. Miller responded that any time the City charged a fee for a service e the fee adjustment could be fine tuned according to the time required to provide the service. She said that houses of comparable expense could take very different amounts of time to check. She said the City, however, was not really adjusting its fee to how much time it took to actually check the plans. She said that by giving a discount to master plans the City was setting up a situation which encouraged a master plan development and she did not want to give an advantage to that type of development. Ms. Smith asked for a restatement of the staff's opinion of Ms. Miller's amendment. Mr. Henry said the City tried to gear its charges according to services received by the contractors. He said charges for checking each house of a master plan were likely to be less than for checking individualized house plans. Mr. Nolte said the figure of $30,000 to $35,000 in additional revenue for the Building Division was based on how many master and routine plans it would review. He said revenues might be increased another $5,000 with a strictly routine charge of 50 percent for all plan checks. Mr. Delay said he supported Ms. Miller's motion. Motion passed unanimously. - 7/25/79--10 ~13