Permit fee waiver plan tweaked
Original idea would have run afoul of state statutes, planning director says
Logan County’s Board of Commissioners continues to tweak its proposal to forgive many of the building permit fees the county charges when it comes to agricultural and ag-related buildings. The changes were brought up during the July 5 workshop meeting.
County Planner Rob Quint, whose office is tasked with assessing the fees, issuing the permits and inspecting the structures as they are built, was on vacation when the commissioners first came up with the idea and had some new information for the governing trio.
Under the proposed policy, anyone doing any non-agricultural building or remodeling that requires a building permit would have the fees forgiven on the first $250,000 of construction costs. Fees would be owed on that part of construction costs above the $250,000 limit.
For agriculture-related structures, however, all building fees would be forgiven.
The commissioners directed County Attorney Alan Samber to work on a resolution to that effect, to be in place for the July 5 meeting.
But Quint, on his return from vacation, saw some flaws in the commissioners’ proposal. For one thing, the new policy couldn’t apply to modular homes; those permit fees are dictated by the state. And Quint pointed out that almost no one building a new home would get a full forgiveness of their fees because of soaring costs of building materials.
“Any new house now is $400,000,” Quint said. “And the state sets the fees on modulars, and they’re quite a bit lower than we normally would charge.”
After discussion, the board agreed to a three-tier fee system:
•Agricultural buildings (barns, equipment sheds, etc.) and ag commercial buildings would have building permit fees waived;
•Non-ag, commercial and residential structures would be charged fees based on construction cost over $250,000;
•Modular building permit fees would continue to be dictated by the state.
The commissioners also decided to sunset the new policy after two years because they don’t want to saddle future boards with a policy if it doesn’t work.