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Charging other Jurisdictions Permit Fees

fatboy

Administrator
Joined
Oct 17, 2009
Messages
6,827
Location
Northern CO
Situation: Another Jurisdiction is going to be building a building, or doing some other code related work within your jurisdiction, say a County is doing a project within a City, question is, do you, or do you not issue a permit, collect the permit fees, and perform inspections?
 
New York State Law and Regulation provides that a Governmental entity which owns or controls a building shall have responsibility for Code compliance within that building.

Example: The Village water treatment plant is outside the incorporated limits of the Village. The Town has no jurisdiction within the Village water treatment plant, the Village has jurisdiction. Conversely, the Town DPW garage is wholly within an incorporated Village, the Village has no jurisdiction at the Town DPW garage, the Town has jurisdiction.

That is specific to NYS. The governing Laws and Regulations will vary from State to State.
 
Conduct plan review, collect fees, issue permit, conduct inspections.

As an enterprise my department does not "waive" fees for any project.

A county, state, water district, school board and a whole host of others are their own taxing authority. No reason the citizens of a one taxing authority subsidize the expenses of another.
 
We have a few schools in our municipality, but the buildings are under the jurisdiction of the State. No building permits or inspections from us, unless it's an exterior amenity such as a monument sign.
 
It is a combination of State Law and local ordinances. Our ordinances, for whatever reason state that permits are free (no cost)to all schools and governments. But we do conduct a plan review and issue permit.

But the Ohio Building Code Section 101 Scope specifically exempts "Buildings owned by and used for a function of the US Government", so in that case, no permit is required.
 
I know that it wouldn't apply to the State or the Feds, this is a City/City or City/County situation
 
One city did not charge for permits but did plan review and inspections of county school or state buildings

Another charged everyone
 
I expect in that most states a county would have sovereignty over a town or city, and the state has sovereignty over both. Your jurisdiction's attorney should be able to tell you what other government agencies you can or can't charge.
 
Had a situation here about 8 years ago I found shocking at the time. Broward Country Health Dept built a facility in Broward County. Broward County Health Dept payed 6 figures in permit fees to the Broward County Building Dept.

Makes sense to me now since funding is distributed differently through out the the county.
 
We even charge other departments within the city. Not only permit and plan review fees but impact fees as well. Most large projects that require permits have some kind of grant monies funding them and and the fees are a legitamate expense under the grant as long as you are consistent with charging everyone.

Why should the building department subsidize other departments. It is not a revenue thing as much as it is good accounting practice for what each department really spends within the the city. Elected officials try to keep the general fund expenses down by having the enterprise fund run departments absorb cost/expenses of other departments.

Unless the is a state law that regulates what you can permit and inspect I say charge the appropriate fees.

A city with a tax base of 20,000 residents should not waive fees on a county or state project and subsidize a tax base of 1 million or 10 million residents
 
chris kennedy said:
Had a situation here about 8 years ago I found shocking at the time. Broward Country Health Dept built a facility in Broward County. Broward County Health Dept payed 6 figures in permit fees to the Broward County Building Dept.Makes sense to me now since funding is distributed differently through out the the county.
You make my point. The Broward County Health Department is a State Agency

The Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) is one of 67 Public Health Departments under the governance of the integrated Florida Department of Health (DOH). Although DOH-Broward is a state agency, it maintains a very strong partnership with Broward County Government, which is formalized in a core contract.

State funds now transfer to local funds through the permitting system and the state pays for the services rendered by the local government.
 
I work for a 3rd party inspection firm. We don't work for free. In PA feds and state owned don't need permits and do their own inspections. If they rent they do need permits and pay. Everyone else needs permits and pay.
 
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