Hollister City Council members Monday weren’t comfortable approving a new set of planning department fees – because the current fees weren’t presented with the related documentation.
Council members Monday night weighed the proposal from the planning department, as Director Bill Avera noted to council members that most of the fees for planning services – such as those for a site and architectural review – would increase by about 3 percent. Still, Councilman Victor Gomez and Mayor Ignacio Velazquez both stressed that they wanted to see the current fee amounts before moving ahead.
“It’s a better idea to table it and bring it back for a future meeting,” Velazquez said.
Council members did table it, but they continued on with the related public hearing as planned.
The proposed planning fees were preempted by a fee study to formulate the new numbers. Those charges must be based on actual costs involved with planning services.
As noted by Avera, there is one fee that involves a sliding scale – the levy for California Environmental Quality Act documents. The city has received 15 percent of the contract amounts for administration. Avera said that instead, the departments wants to try a sliding scale that involves reducing the charge to 10 percent for amounts between $75,000 and $100,000, and 5 percent for amounts over $100,000.
“I believe that the amount of work that staff takes on, whether a contract is at $70,000 or $90,000, is probably very similar,” Avera said.
There was just one speaker during the public hearing.
Marty Richman, who writes a column for the Free Lance, supported the sliding scale idea. He expressed concern, though, about the “initial hit” for developers of 15 percent.
