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Aurora CO Changing how fees are calculated for new buildings

mark handler

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Aurora Changing how fees are calculated for new buildings
Aurora’s new method makes cost calculations easier and more predictable
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/08/aurora-building-fees/
The city of Aurora will streamline how fees are calculated for new building construction projects starting June 13.
“It’s going to be fast, simple and predictable,” said Aurora’s chief building official Scott Berg. Building fees pay for things such as plan review, permits and inspection services related to new building construction.
Up until now, Aurora determined building fees like many cities across the country: by a building’s construction cost.
Aurora’s new system will enable the customer to instantly calculate a building fee by multiplying the building square footage with a per-square-foot fee based on the building type.
“It allows our customers to determine the one-time fee in advance, and pay it when the permit is issued,” Berg said. “And the single fee is directly in line with what it costs us to supply services like plan review and revisions, department referrals, project amendments and permit issuance.”
Other changes being made by the Building Division and Permit Center include an online chat feature, a dedicated call center, an electronic check-in queuing system that doesn’t requires an appointment, and the establishment of flat fees for many permit types, one-stop in-house consultation and cross-trained inspectors.
 
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New Building Construction Fees Simplified
Posted on 06/06/2018
Beginning June 13, building customers will only need two numbers and a calculator to figure out how much they need to pay the city of Aurora for building fees.
“We are streamlining how fees are calculated for new building construction projects and setting a new standard among municipalities nationwide,” said Scott Berg, chief building official for the city of Aurora. “It’s going to be fast, simple and predictable.”
Building fees pay for city services like plan review, permits and inspection services related to new building construction.
Like cities across the country, the city of Aurora has always determined its building fees for “new build” projects like commercial buildings and new homes based on a building’s construction costs, or “valuation.”
But this system is unpredictable, complicated and difficult for customers to estimate in advance. It also assumes a correlation between the building’s value and the costs for the city to provide services.
So the city of Aurora is ditching this outdated system for a new system that enables the customer to instantly calculate their building fee by multiplying the building square footage with a per-square-foot fee based on the building type.
“It allows our customers to determine the one-time fee in advance, and pay it when the permit is issued,” Berg said. “And the single fee is directly in line with what it costs us to supply services like plan review and revisions, department referrals, project amendments and permit issuance.”
Some projects may have additional fees related to parks, capital and such, and use tax will still be collected separately and calculated based on materials costs.
This change in how new building fees are calculated is yet another improvement that has happened in the city’s Building Division and Permit Center in recent years to make every customer’s work easier and save them time while also making costs predictable.
Some of those improvements include an online chat feature, a dedicated call center to answer inbound calls within 30 seconds or less, an electronic check-in queuing system that requires no appointment and an average wait time of less than three minutes, 100 percent of services available online, flat fees for many permit types, one-stop in-house consultation and cross-trained inspectors.
https://www.auroragov.org/cms/one.aspx?portalId=1881221&pageId=13205911
 
We are doing this in our new by-law. Municipalities in Ontario started doing this in the late 90's to align with taxation law. It's refereed to as a "service index" here.
 
There's no way the fees in that table can be legit. $5000 minimum fee for a restaurant/bar? $2000 minimum for a single-family home? $3500 for storage units???

I guess if your goal is to discourage any new development in your City, this is one way to do it..
 
The town I reside in had a 40¢ per sf for residential and commercial buildings but had a challenge when a detached garage was built. The resident claimed that 40¢ per sf was to high for a garage or out building, so they altered the fee by changing the ordinance making it 20¢ per sf. Not sure that I agree with this change, seems a bit low for sending an inspector out to do 4+ inspections.
 
Does Aurora account for what the ISO wants. The ISO want's your budget to allow for training inspectors.
 
There's no way the fees in that table can be legit. $5000 minimum fee for a restaurant/bar? $2000 minimum for a single-family home? $3500 for storage units???

I guess if your goal is to discourage any new development in your City, this is one way to do it..

I only wish we could get those fees, they don't talk about the myriad of other fees you have to pay along with the permit fees. I had a case with a million dollar addition and the Affordable Housing fee alone was $67,000, in last week's election the Democrats nominated Gavin Newsom for Governor,

Wikipedia said:
One of Newsom's early interactions with government occurred when Newsom resisted the San Francisco Health Department requirement to install a sink at his PlumpJack wine store. The Health Department argued that wine was a food. The department required the store to install a $27,000 sink in the carpeted wine shop on the grounds that the shop needed the sink for a mop. When Newsom was later appointed supervisor, he told the San Francisco Examiner: "That's the kind of bureaucratic malaise I'm going to be working through."¹

I guarantee most of that $27,000 was city fees.


¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom
 
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