Council adopts updated building permit fees after cost study; ordinance passed unanimously

The Goshen City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 52-56 on second and final reading on June 22, adopting a revised schedule of building permit fees grounded in an auditable cost-of-service study.

The legal department and building staff presented the study, which mapped staff time and fully burdened hourly rates, applied a 30% overhead allocation for shared services, and calculated true per-permit costs. “When someone pulls a demolition permit today, they pay $30. It actually costs the city $214 to process and inspect that work,” presenter Shawn Gulick said, illustrating the gap between current fees and the expense of providing permitting services. The analysis found that, across more than 80 permit categories, current fees recover roughly 40% of true cost on average.

Councilors asked about tracking permit volume and future adjustments. Staff said the model includes formulas that can be rerun when salary, staffing, or overhead change, but noted a state law limit cited in the presentation (referred to in the record as HCA/House Act 1001) restricts routine fee-schedule updates to once every five years; the presenter and legal counsel explained the ordinance can still be adjusted sooner if costs “substantially change” and the council holds a public hearing.

The new schedule raises some permit fees to approach full cost recovery (for example, a proposed commercial foundation permit fee of $590 was presented against a calculated cost of $593). The council approved a minor amendment shifting a fire-alarm/smoke-alarm fee between sections of the schedule before adopting the ordinance.

Adoption steps include updating permitting software, notifying contractors and applicants, and staff training; staff said implementation work and communications are planned for the coming quarters. The ordinance takes effect subject to the normal administrative steps, and staff said the next opportunity to pursue broad fee-schedule changes under the cited state law would not be until 2031 unless a substantial-cost change is documented and heard by the council earlier.

The city framed the fee update as a move to prevent the general fund from subsidizing permit-processing costs and to maintain building-department stability.