CRESTVIEW — As city officials work toward streamlining the development permitting process, the city’s administrative fees are receiving an overhaul.
And if Crestview's City Council votes in favor of a revised Land Use Regulations Administrative Fees code on June 13, it will take effect that day.
Why is this so important?
“Primarily, in a nutshell, the majority of these fees have not been looked at since 2013,” growth management Director Teresa Gaillard said in a phone interview. “Basically we're doing some modest adjustment in the building inspection fees.
“Some are actually being removed. The majority are being rephrased and revamped for readability.”
Gaillard has said some sections of the city’s fee schedule haven’t been updated since October 1996.
BY STATE LAW
The Florida Building Code tasks municipalities with assuring new construction or renovations meet state standards.
By law, the city’s permitting fees can only be used to cover the cost of inspecting development to ensure it meets state codes. Crestview makes no profit from fees and inspections.
Constructing a new building in Crestview and neighboring communities requires a variety of permits costing various fees, beginning with a $55 non-refundable base fee proposed under the comprehensive proposed ordinance Gaillard submitted to the City Council on May 9.
Other permits include:
●Building permit: under the proposal, fees would begin at $35 for the first $7,000 of value of a $15,000 or less project, plus $5 for each additional thousand dollars of value
●Plan review fee: beginning at 25 percent of the master permit fee to review plans submitted to the city
●Ancillary fees: For expenses including addendums to plans, revisions of plans, re-submittal of lost or stolen job-site plans, and extra job-site copies of approved plans.
●Mobile home fees
●Temporary use permits, such as for tents, job-site trailers and temporary structures placed for less than 180 days
●Demolition fees, sign fees, electrical permit fees, service fees, circuit fees, electric motor fees, swimming pool electrical systems fees, and transformer fees.
FEES FOR EVERYTHING
Nothing is left to chance, Gaillard said. Thus, doctors’ offices have a fee to install an X-ray machine ($50). Buildings with elevators incur a $175 fee for each lift.
Building heating, air-conditioning, kitchen exhausts, plumbing, gas, water and sewer, and sprinkler systems each get respective fees.
Want to have a sprinkler system in the front yard? There’s a $30 permit fee for that. Fire and security alarms also require permits and fees, as does any driveway connecting to a city street.
If the city’s Land Development Regulation City Code and its fee schedule seem a bit complicated, under the proposed revisions, Growth Management staff will gladly research and interpret it.
For a $40 per item fee.
BAD FOR BUSINESS?
A local business owner questions the fees, and whether city codes are clear and evenly enforced after learning that his store violated an ordinance.
The incident raises a larger question about how well city codes, and fees, match local businesses' needs, he says.
Crestview Motorsports co-owner Craig Shaw received a code violation notification after he displayed some vehicles across the street from his showroom.
Allen Flanagan, his partner and store manager, said the store’s location — up the block from South Ferdon Boulevard — is hard to spot, and placing a sign close to Ferdon, also the state highway, would be too expensive.
That's why they displayed some of the vehicles across Williams Street.
The city’s ordinance states “a separate license shall be required for each place” where a company does business, but Shaw said he believes the ordinance isn’t clear.
“As literal as it's written, you can't do business at any location but the address on your business license,” Shaw said. “If you're going to enforce it, enforce it evenly.”
For example, he said, “what about an insurance agent who writes a policy sitting at your kitchen table?”
ANALYZING TAX RECEIPTS
Crestview Code Enforcement Officer Senida Oglesby said city ordinances do cover a range of situations.
“Let’s say you’re an air conditioning repair business,” Oglesby said. “You would need a business tax receipt for your office location only. But the code does not require a business tax receipt for each home where you go repair the equipment. It’s for the office location only.”
Shaw’s company violated the ordinance by using a lot where it wasn’t licensed to do business, according to the code’s phrasing.
“If you take the merchandise to an offsite parcel, you need to get a business tax receipt for that site,” Oglesby said, noting a camper dealership not far from Shaw’s company must have five licenses to cover all of its sales lots.
STEP BY STEP
Obtaining a tax receipt is the first step in conducting business in Crestview, Oglesby said.
“The city would (consider) the zoning and parking requirements” among other criteria, Oglesby said. “If the parcel doesn’t meet the requirements, the owner can’t conduct business there.”
Shaw said he now realizes that using the lot at the corner of Williams and South Ferdon Boulevard to display off-road vehicles involves more than just getting the lot owner’s permission.
But that still doesn’t address the ordinance’s perceived vagueness, he said.
ANNUAL FEES
In addition to permits for constructing or renovating buildings, permits and fees collected by Crestview to assure compliance with the Florida Fire Prevention Code include:
●Bonfires and outdoor rubbish fires: $13
●Refinishing and resurfacing bowling lanes: $65
●Calcium carbide storage: $33
●Dust explosion prevention: $33
●Fireworks storage, manufacture, sale or discharge: $65
●Grandstands, tents, membrane structures: $65
●Private fire hydrants: $17
●Special outdoor events, carnivals and fairs: $65 (except carnivals under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)
●Spraying or dipping: $33
●Places of public assembly except those used solely for religious worship: $65
In addition to permits for constructing or renovating buildings, permits and fees collected by Crestview to assure compliance with the Florida Fire Prevention Code include:
●Bonfires and outdoor rubbish fires: $13
●Refinishing and resurfacing bowling lanes: $65
●Calcium carbide storage: $33
●Dust explosion prevention: $33
●Fireworks storage, manufacture, sale or discharge: $65
●Grandstands, tents, membrane structures: $65
●Private fire hydrants: $17
●Special outdoor events, carnivals and fairs: $65 (except carnivals under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)
●Spraying or dipping: $33
●Places of public assembly except those used solely for religious worship: $65
ANNUAL FEES
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: There's a fee for that: Crestview administrative fees get overhauled