The purpose of this chapter is to assure that applicants of all land development proposals pay the city costs associated with the review and processing of the proposals and to provide procedures for administering said costs.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008)
A. 
"Director"
means the community and economic development director for the city of North Bend, Washington.
B. 
"Flat fee permits"
means permits or services for which a fixed sum or charge shall be paid by the applicant.
C. 
"Land use development proposal" means those proposals defined as a "land use permit" or a "flat fee permit."
D. 
"Land use permit"
means and includes, but is not limited to, applications for approval of permits relating to the use of land within the city, and shall be construed broadly to include all reviews, permits, or approvals sought under NBMC Titles 14 through 20.
E. 
"Processing costs"
means all costs related to the processing of a land use permit, including, but not limited to, actual time and materials costs for application review, assessment, engineering, inspections, legal, secretarial, administrative, publication, and other city processing costs, as well as consultant costs and legal costs. Processing costs do not include flat fee charges for services.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008; Ord. 1572 § 1, 2015)
Application for all land use development proposals shall be accompanied by fees as established by ordinance of the city council. Said fees must accompany the application as one element in the determination as to whether the application is deemed complete.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008)
A. 
The City Council is empowered, in extraordinary and compelling circumstances, to reduce or waive some or all of any City fee or charges when it finds that such reduction or waiver is necessary to provide support for the poor or infirm, in amounts of up to $10,000 per incident or occasion; provided, that this authorization shall not apply to fees or charges for which state law prohibits reduction or waiver. Such action by the City Council requires a majority vote to approve.
B. 
The City Council is authorized to exempt the City from paying the charges or fees otherwise applicable to City projects, developments, or applications where the City is providing some or all of the funding, and the charge or fee would be paid out of one of the City's governmental funds (including the general fund and those funds supported by the general fund) and the fund that would receive such payment, were it paid, is also one of the City's governmental funds (including the general fund and/or any of the funds supported by the general fund); and is also authorized to exempt the City from paying the charges or fees otherwise applicable to City projects, developments, or applications where the charge or fee would be paid out of one of the City's enterprise funds and the fund that would receive such payment, were it paid, is the same enterprise fund.
C. 
The City Council finds sufficient consideration to waive certain permit fees required under the International Building Code ("IBC") when (1) the permits, and corresponding permit fees, are related to the improvement of City-owned buildings or property, or the permit fee charges are necessary to provide support for the poor and infirm, and (2) the future beneficial use of the property and the community benefits of the project will outweigh the permit fees, and therefore, such payment of a permit fee under the IBC would result in no net gain for the City or benefit the public while incurring additional staff costs to track such a payment.
D. 
Waivers or reduced fees shall be treated as special or extraordinary occurrences. Their frequency and extent, in aggregate, shall not have the effect of subverting the established fee schedule.
(Ord. 1836, 7/15/2025)
A. 
The land use permit applicant shall pay to the city all processing costs associated with the processing of the land use permit, as such costs are defined in NBMC § 20.09.020(E); provided, however, that there will be no charge for one preapplication meeting. After the preapplication meeting, the city shall inform the applicant, in writing, of the processing deposit that must be submitted with the land use permit application. The processing deposit is separate from, and required in addition to, the application fees required by NBMC § 20.09.030.
B. 
The director shall calculate the total processing costs and the deposit for a land use permit application according to the following factors: (1) the estimated number of hours of city staff time required to process the land use permit multiplied by the staff members' applicable hourly rate(s); (2) the expected costs for postage, printing, publication, notice, posting, and other related administrative costs associated with processing the land use permit; and (3) the estimated number of hours of consultant and hearing examiner time required to process the land use permit multiplied by the consultant(s)' applicable hourly rate(s).
C. 
The city will establish a segregated deposit account for each application deposit required under subsection A of this section. The city will invoice the applicant monthly for all actual processing costs incurred, along with an administrative fee in an amount equal to 10 percent of the invoice total. The applicant shall pay all invoices within 15 days of mailing date. In the event the applicant fails to pay per this section, the city shall draw from the deposit. Applicant shall at all times maintain the initial deposit amount requested by the city. To ensure the efficient processing of the land use permit application, the applicant and the city shall execute a memorandum of understanding, in a form acceptable to the city attorney, for payment of processing costs required herein.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008; Ord. 1572 § 2, 2015)
A. 
Hourly rates for city staff time to process land development proposals shall be as established by ordinance of the city council.
B. 
Routine city processing costs shall be established by ordinance of the city council.
C. 
Predevelopment application review (PAR) costs shall be charged to each company or individual requesting information in furtherance of a development permit application on a time and materials basis using hourly service rates from the city-adopted fee schedule. All project development representatives for development projects shall be given one initial free consultation meeting with city staff. Smaller development proposals such as one single-family home with the homeowner as applicant (one time only), small business tenant improvements of 3,000 square feet or less, and similar small scale projects as determined by the community and economic development director shall be exempt from the PAR fee. In the event that small scale project PAR review(s) take more than 40 hours of city staff time, any additional time spent on the exempt projects shall be charged time and materials cost for the remaining preapplication review.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008; Ord. 1634 § 2, 2017)
Fee amounts for all flat fee permits shall be as established by ordinance of the city council.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008)
A. 
The city shall have the right to determine when to use outside consultants to provide any or all of the necessary work related to processing land use development proposals.
B. 
In the event the city uses an outside consultant, the consultant shall provide the community development director with an estimate of the number of hours to process a land use development proposal multiplied by the hourly rate(s) of the consultant's personnel that are expected to process the proposal.
(Ord. 1083 § 2 (part), 1999; Ord. 1318 § 1 (part), 2008)