San Jose – Planning fees for development projects in unincorporated areas will go up 9 percent in October to help the Santa Clara County Planning Department recoup its costs for processing site approval applications.
The increases, which cover everything from initial applications to final design reviews and appeals, were raised 12 percent last year.
“We’re just trying to make the amount of money that comes in with applications equal the amount of money we spend on applications,” said Mike Lopez, interim planning director.
Under county rules, the planning department must break even.
The county uses a more-graduated Bay Area consumer price index to set most fees, but Lopez said higher labor and benefit costs make the staff time required to process planning applications very expensive. In defending the new fee schedule planners noted that the rates are lower than those in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties and comparable to the cities of Los Gatos and San Jose. County supervisors adopted the fees with little discussion Tuesday.
Planning fees effective Oct. 3, 2005
General plan amendment
$10,042 plus labor
Certificate of compliance
$3,412 plus labor
Design review
$1,270 plus labor
Pre-application meeting
$243-$1,057 plus labor
Standard use permit
$5,435 plus labor
Major use permit
$10,586 plus labor
Standard variance
$1,269 plus labor
Appeal
$715-$1,088 plus labor
