The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved the first reading of amendments to fee schedules for the building standard, water utility, the clay courts fee schedule at Columbia County Racquet Center and the land development fees in the Stormwater Compliance Department during the meeting on June 6.
Several community members voiced their thoughts on amending the building standards fees. Rob Zapata, an electrical contractor was against raising the fees, stating that for him, permits were down 50% from last year. He added that material costs are increasing, so if fees increase, the cost will be passed along to homeowners. He suggested one way to avoid raising the fees was by having inspectors visit a site once instead of doing multiple visits.
“I think we need to go back to all the trades, there’s one call, that’s all,” Zapata said. “What I mean by that is when all the trades are done, the inspector gets to go over there the first time, one time versus you have the plumbing, electrical, heating and air, we all call in our own inspections. They’re making probably seven to 10 trips to that house and more if there’s any re-inspections (needed)…versus it’s not going to hold up the job versus the one call most of the other counties do it and different states do it.”
Commission Chair Doug Duncan asked Paul Scarbary, division director for building standards, if fees were being raised because permits were down.
“Right now, yes, we’re projecting a 10% decline, and in order to meet that 10% decline, we’re going to have to raise those fees at some point,” Scarbary said. “If they were to drop 40%, then we would have to raise those fees even more. However, just to minimize to just meet those expenditures, that’s where we’re at.”
Besides raising fees, the only other way to cut expenditures would be to cut employees, and the department is already short staffed, Scarbary said. Right now the county is providing a 24-hour turnaround time for inspections, but that could change if they had to cut employees and did not raise fees.
Commissioner Connie Melear, who is in commercial construction, said she understands not wanting the prices to increase, but would appreciates the 24-hour turn around for inspections and would hate to lose that.
However, Mark Ivey, a home builder in the CSRA, said nobody likes to see costs increase, but with the costs of labor and materials increasing, it’s not unexpected to see fees being raised. He added that he was not in favor of having one inspection and losing the 24-hour turnaround for inspections.
“My only comment is that if we’re going to go up on fees, I want to make sure Paul (Scarbary) is able to maintain the same level of service we have now,” Ivey said. “Because like Rob said, Columbia County has great inspectors, they are trained and you only have to call one inspector out there, you don’t have to deal with three or four different ones like we do in other jurisdictions. We want to make sure that same level of service.”
The new fees can be found here.
For the water utility fee schedule, the board of commissioners approved the first reading of amending the schedule. But instead of a slight increase over the next three years, Commissioner Gary Richardson made the motion to go with the 2024 fees starting July 1, 2023. That means the residential base charge would be $12.31 with the rate per 1,000 gallons starting at $2.42 per 1,000 gallons for less than 10,000 gallons.
The county has not increased the water consumption rates since 2016 and has not adjusted the tap fees since 2017. However, since that time, there has been an increase in the cost of chemicals, construction, equipment and labor. The increase is also needed to keep money in the fund balance to be able to help pay for projects needed to accommodate the growth in the county, said Assistant County Manager Matt Schlachter.
With the opening of the Columbia County Racquet Center, the fees for the clay tennis courts have been set.
The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved the fee schedule during the June 6 meeting. The fees are $350 per year for Columbia County residents, $275 for Columbia County residents who are 55 and older and $500 per year for non-Columbia County residents. Assistant County Manager Matt Schlachter said the clay courts require more maintenance to keep them up and running.
“We want to make sure you have the right shoes on if you’re using this court, want to make sure people aren’t out there on their bikes (and) their bikes aren’t causing problems,” Schlachter said. “So, we’re going to take care of these courts a little better than a standard hard court.’
Commissioners also approved mending the fee schedule for the land development fees in the Stormwater Compliance Department. Schlachter said some of the increases were $150 to $250 for minor land disturbances and a major land disturbance for one to five acres went from $250 + 25 per acre to $300 an acre, with the other fees increasing similarly.
“This gets us about halfway to cover our costs,” Schlachter said.
County Manager Scott Johnson said the other option is to allow the state to take over responsibilities and the county not handle it anymore.
“I don’t think anybody in the development community wants that,” Johnson said. “We can do it. If we don’t pass these fees, we can no longer continue to support this department. What we’re asking is only going to get us halfway there and we can’t continue to do this. My recommendation is going to be to the commission, if we don’t do these fees, my recommendation is going to be we get out of this business and we turn these activities over to the state.”
All of these approvals were first readings and will need to have a second reading.
