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The Chehalis City Council on Monday passed a resolution establishing a new schedule of fees and charges that will largely impact parking violations, parks and facility usage, the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, city engineering, planning and building.
The city’s current schedule of fees and charges went into effect in 2015 and hasn’t seen broad adjustments since then, according to city documents. The purpose for the new schedule is to better reflect the costs to the city for offering those services and to make it easier for customers to find and understand the fees, according to the city.
Resolution No. 4-2021 passed 4-2 with councilors Jerry Lord and Mike Bannan voting against it. Councilor Bob Spahr was absent.
The largest adjustment comes with business related to the city’s community development department.
While commercial and residential fees for projects with a valuation of $20,000 will see a 1.9% decrease thanks to a surcharge drop, projects valued $250,000 will see a 7.34% increase and projects with a $1 million valuation will see a 13.6% increase, according to city documents.
Those fees encompass permitting and city-led plan reviews. Their totals listed also don’t reflect any state fees that may be required.
Other changes to community development fees include:
• Adding fees that address home repair for residential properties, such as windows replacement or siding repair.
• Waiving half of the site plan approval fee for applicants who have a pre-application meeting within the prior 180 days.
• Adding terminology for minor versus major amendments.
• A $300 flat fee for the development review committee with staff members, building and planning manager Tammy Baraconi, the fire chief and the police chief. That fee had previously not been charged.
Compared with other municipalities, Baraconi said these new adjustments are significantly less than the county’s, on par with Centralia’s and less than Shelton’s, a similarly-sized city.
Bannan called the community development fee increases “bad timing,” especially as the economy continues to reopen and people get their jobs back. He said he’d like to see the fees tabled for future discussion.
“That is a legitimate argument. I would say though that, pandemic or not, community development is very, very, very busy right now. There are not enough people in our office to accommodate the demand we have. So, I’m not sure the pandemic itself has slowed down development in any way,” Baraconi said, noting that she would like to hire more city employees to address their staffing crunch.
Mayor Dennis Dawes said the examination of scheduled city fees and charges was directed by the council.
“There is no good time to raise any tax or any fee,” Dawes said. “There’s always going to be something. Right now, it’s the pandemic. A year from now, it’s going to be a completely other reason. We have to look at running a business. We have to look at our costs and we have to look at ways to recover those costs … But it will be a full council decision.”
Lord said he’s not opposed to raising any of the city fees, but wished that community development staff would have shown how they came to the increases they settled on.
City Manager Jill Anderson said the city could hire a consultant to research and more thoroughly assess the city’s fees and charges. In her experience, she said that wouldn't yield a better fee schedule and would cost the city more in time and money.
“I appreciate that there’s a concern about the exactness, but I can tell you it does cost us more to provide this service than what we are collecting, even with the revised fee schedule,” she said, noting that developers have commented on how low the city’s fees are. “I consistently hear ‘time is money.’ (Developers) would rather pay a little more and have better service. I think the community would have us produce less of a subsidy there and at least collect a fair amount than keep the fees at a reduced level.”
There are also changes coming to the Chehalis Police Department’s fees and charges. Per state requirements, new concealed weapons permits will be $49.25, a renewal will cost $32, a late renewal $42 and a replacement license $10.
Parking violations and illegal parking fees will also see a substantial increase.
Prior to passage, first-time parking violation offenders were charged $5, second violations were $10 and third and subsequent violations were charged $15. Now, all parking violations will be charged a flat $20 fee.
Monthly individual parking lot permits went up from $7.50 to $20, monthly commercial parking permits increased from $15 to $20, and miscellaneous violations, such as blocking a driveway or parking on a yellow curb, doubled to $30.
Camping and associated RV sewage disposal charges at city facilities are also due to increase with the resolution.
Disposal will increase from $3 to $5, nightly camping rates will go up from $20 to $50 and a yard waste disposal pass will see a slight increase, from $40 to $50.
At the airport, ramp tie-down fees will go up from $5 daily to $35 daily, but daily and weekly rental fees are expected to see decreases to $60 and $420, respectively.
