06/17/2008: "Fees Increased For Owner-Builder Permits"

The County Council held a hearing Tuesday on an ordinance to change the fees "Regarding Building Fees for Owner/Builder Permits, Reactivation of Expired Permits, and Clerical Services."

Owner-Builder permits are not the same as Owner Contractor, in which the owner of a property acts as the general contractor. The Owner-Builder permit allows construction without inspections or permitting of structural engineering, but does require so-called "health and safety" inspections.

The ordinance resulted from a move by Ron Hendrickson last year to "Abolish The Owner Builder Permit!", which went over with the council members like a lead balloon, but they agreed to take a look at an increase of fees designed to cover county costs of processing the permits

After limited public comment, the Council voted to approve the new fee schedule as proposed. with Councilman Rich Peterson voting against, stating he was opposed to the lack of a reduced fee for homes larger than 2,500 square feet, because it potential excludes homes for large families from taking advantage of the reduced fee.

What the council did agree on, is that a new fee schedule was overdue, and according to a staff report introducing the new proposed ordinance, it “accomplishes the following:

- For homes less than 1,500 square feet the new fee would be slightly less than the
current fee for O/B. These residences comprise roughly 56% of all O/B permits.

- For homes up to 2,000 and 2,500 square feet fees would increase modestly, by
about $49 and $142 respectively. Together these represent about 24% of the O/B
permits.

- For all residences above 2,500 square feet, which comprise about 10% of the O/B
permits, the fee would equate to conventional construction.