Title
Amending Chapter 33.04 of the Legislative Code to require that 10% of the estimated plan review fee is to be paid before a review may begin.
Body?
SECTION 1?
WHEREAS, the City incurs substantial administrative and professional costs in reviewing building permit applications, including staff time, technical evaluations, and compliance checks; and
WHEREAS, a significant number of applicants submit incomplete, inaccurate, or substandard plans that require multiple rounds of correction and review, thereby increasing the workload on City staff and delaying processing for other applicants; and
WHEREAS, some applicants fail to complete the permitting process by not paying for or picking up their approved permits, resulting in wasted staff time and unrecovered costs; and
WHEREAS, the lack of an upfront fee structure has led to inefficiencies, misallocation of resources, and unnecessary public expense; and
WHEREAS, establishing a reasonable application fee for building permit plan reviews promotes accountability, encourages submission of complete and accurate applications, and ensures that the costs of service are more equitably distributed; and now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, the Council of the City of Saint Paul does hereby ordain;
SECTION 2?
Section 33.04 is hereby amended to read as follows?-
Sec. 33.04. - Establishment of permit fees.?
Fees required. Before issuing any permit required by the building code, this chapter or other pertinent provisions of the Saint Paul Legislative Code, the fee as indicated in the following schedule shall must be paid.?
Where work for which any such permit is required, is started or proceeded with prior to obtaining said permit, the fee specified shall must be collected and, in addition, a penalty fee shall must be collected. The penalty fee shall must be equal to the specified permit fee. The payment of such penalty fee shall must not relieve any person from fully complying with the requirement...
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