PLEASANT VIEW — This city wants to be more friendly to small subdivisions, Mayor Doug Clifford said, and in accordance approved an amendment to the consolidated fee schedule for subdivisions and special exceptions fees.
“We are seeing more small subdivisions in the city,” Clifford said. Smaller subdivisions are those with five or fewer lots.
“In recent years, more than not, development is occurring on small projects,” said Community Development Director Bruce Talbot. “Smaller (projects) don’t require a whole lot of review on our part. For some of them there is no dedication of roads, not anything we have to review in a strenuous way. We wanted to establish a separate fee for those. Our fees are not outrageous; they are in line with other communities.”
Talbot said he did think it would be fair on Pleasant View’s part to make costs a little lighter for the small developments in the city. He said the typical fee for a small subdivision would be around $800, which would include the preliminary subdivision fee, the engineering deposit, a plat fee and a preliminary lot fee.
“We looked carefully at our fees — engineering fees, some projects never use them. We have to track them and reimburse them. On other projects the fees haven’t been sufficient — there were lots more costs than that fee will cover.”
Talbot also said the new stormwater ordinance has required a fee of $50 for the stormwater inspection.
“We don’t feel that’s outrageous or that we’ll abuse it at all,” Talbot said.
Talbot said the special exception fee would apply to some home occupations and out-of-the-ordinary signs. He said the special exception fee would be less than the previous conditional-use fee by $50. The conditional-use fee is $250 and will still be used in some instances.
Talbot said the special exceptions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and may be reviewed by the planning commission as well as the board of adjustments.
Clifford said it is really difficult when the code book for the city grows and every time something comes in it is on a case-by-case basis.
“This is a get-out-of-jail-free card. This covers a class of things we don’t want to classify individually,” he said.
“It is sort of a way to keep our ordinances flexible,” Talbot said. “There are some exceptions to the rules, special exceptions. We will enumerate what they are and which body will look at them.”
“We are trying to be reactive to the needs of our smaller developer and reactive to what’s coming to all communities with stormwater,” Clifford said, “We’ll enact these new fees which are more friendly to smaller developments and meet federal requirements for stormwater.”
Clifford thanked Talbot for helping the city move forward in an ever-changing landscape of federal regulations.
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