Officials to mull building inspection fee increase

The cost of building homes, apartments and commercial buildings in Harrison Township is about to get a little more expensive.

Members of the Harrison Township Board of Trustees on Monday are expected to update the building department fee schedule, which has not been increased in the lakeside community since 2017, officials said.

“Since 2017, construction costs have increased dramatically; however, we have not adjusted our fees to reflect these increased construction costs,” Brent Condon, the township’s building official, said in a memo to the board.

In general, the building department is proposing to increase each of the four inspection fees by $5. That includes building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing fees.

Also, officials propose zoning fees that include inspections — for fences, concrete, fill etc. — will also go up by $5, as will plan review fees.

According to Condon, the biggest change involves converting over to the International Code Council’s (ICC) Construction Cost table. It will replace the State of Michigan Construction Cost table Harrison Township currently uses.

The purpose of the table is to determine the minimum cost of a project.

The state table is “outdated and has not been revised since 2013,” Condon wrote in his memo to the board. Other communities such as Clinton, Macomb and Washington townships, and Sterling Heights have all switched over to the ICC table.

The board is scheduled to act on the item at 7 p.m. Monday at Rosso Memorial Hall, 38255 L’Anse Creuse at Townhall streets.