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Town Building Fees Rising

Better matching town building fees to town inspection and review costs was the reason the Board of Selectmen adopted a new fee schedule for the building department. The new fee schedule now goes to a Town Meeting for adoption as an ordinance amendment.

The last time the Town of Westbrook changed its building fee schedule was in 2004, although town costs have continued to rise.

Finance Director Andrew Urban told the selectmen last week that if the new building fee schedule were adopted, the new fees would raise enough revenue to cover about 25 percent of the department’s actual costs, up from the current 17 percent.

The town building department’s permit application fees have two components: one is a fixed base, and the other is an additional variable fee that reflects the value of the construction project being permitted.

Currently the fixed base fee is $20 for the first $1,000 of construction project value. In the new schedule, the base fee would not change; what will increase is the variable fee based on a project’s value. That fee will rise from $10 for every $1,000 of value to $15 for every $1,000 in value above the base fee amount.

Other building department fees on the list are new or will rise. Going up from $0.16 per $1,000 of value to $0.26 per $1,000 is the state-mandated Connecticut education fee.

The building schedule also includes one new charge. A new fee of $100 will be assessed for the town building official to perform a building inspection in a case in which an applicant’s approved plan was not followed.

Two other building department fees will rise from $25 to $50 to secure a permit. Those permit fees are for a demolition permit and for an oil tank removal permit.

The town’s building fee schedule is currently incorporated in the town’s Code of Ordinances in Part 2, Section 5, Buildings and Buildings Regulations. That means that for the new fee schedule to become effective, it must be adopted at an upcoming Town Meeting.

When adopting the new building fee schedule, the board also removed from the former schedule fees that were associated with Health Department services.

In a special selectmen’s meeting on April 10, the board planned to adopt a second town ordinance amendment to Chapter 18 to authorize the health director to propose a schedule of fees to the Board of Selectmen to adopt.

Urban said that he and Health Director Sonia Marino would present a new proposed Health Department fee schedule to the Board of Selectmen at its meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 23.