AGENDA ITEM REPORT
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A RESOLUTION ACKNOWLEDGING THE CITY'S INITIATION OF A BUILDING PERMIT AND INSPECTION FEE ANALYSIS TO COMPLY WITH STATE LAW, WHICH MAY RESULT IN A PARTIAL FEE REIMBURSEMENT FOLLOWING ADOPTION OF AN UPDATED BUILDING PERMIT FEE SCHEDULE CONSISTENT WITH STATE LAW REQUIREMENTS.
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BACKGROUND:
Chapter 553, Florida Statutes, relates to building permits and inspections and establishes provisions for the setting of fees associated with those services. The Florida legislature adopted House Bill 803 (HB 803), which was signed by the governor and became Chapter No. 2026-63, Laws of Florida, amending Chapter 553, Florida Statutes, effective July 1, 2026.
The new requirements provide that inspection fees may not exceed the actual cost of providing inspection services and that building permit fees must be based on the cost incurred by the local jurisdiction, including the labor costs of personnel providing such services and associated clerical and supervisory assistance. Building plan review and inspection fees must also be reasonably related to the costs associated with processing applications and such fees may not be based on a percentage of project costs.
DISCUSSION:
Several of the City's current building permit and inspection fees are based on construction cost. In addition, most fees have not been updated in some time and do not reflect inflation or increased service costs. The City is undertaking a fee analysis to develop a new permit and inspection fee schedule based on the actual costs associated with processing the applications and conducting inspections rather than project costs.
In order to ensure compliance with the state mandate, the City will continue utilizing the existing fee schedule while completing the fee analysis and adopting an updated permit and inspection fee schedule. Following adoption of the updated fee schedule, permit and inspection fees collected after July 1, 2026, will be reviewed to determine whether a...
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