[Massplanners] Filing Fees

[daniel.j.fortier at gmail.com]

Richard, 

 

I will forward you the results of the fee structure analysis under a separate email as the listserve does not always like attachments.  But, the process below I first used in Fairhaven and then used the same analysis in Dennis. The process was run by staff at the Department of Revenue while I was in Fairhaven as the fee increase was going to be significant and I did not want any question as to whether it was considered an illegal tax.

 

Step 1

 

Determine which staff worked on applications to the Planning Board and Board of Appeals and the portion of their time that was associated with project review or other support aspects of guiding applications through the process.  As both offices were only staffed by the Planner and one Planning Assistant, I came up with the following:

 

Planner 50% of time associated with application Review.

Planning Assistant 80% of time associated with Board support (agenda’s, legal notices, abutters, filing decisions etc)

 

Step 2 

 

Aggregate number of applications reviewed and, if possible size of various projects. I found that I spent more time on larger projects than smaller ones and set up a structure (which will be illustrated in the attachments under separate cover) to assign costs appropriatele.

 

Step 3 

 

Determine how to assign costs across the different types of applications, Special Permit Reviews, Modifications to projects, Subdivision (ANR, Preliminary and Definitive), sign code, Variance, etc. 

 

On Special Permits, I determined there should be a flat fee for projects, and then additional fees for projects over particular sizes. This attempted to ensure that the homeowner adding a bathroom was not paying more than Stop and Shop (in both Fairhaven and Dennis, when I arrived a large commercial project would be the same, or less, than a homeowner adding a bathroom).

 

Anyone else wanting to see the end result of this approach, let me know (except Bill Roth who had to live with this fee structure a a LONG time and probably knows these fees inside out - Just Kidding Bill)

 

Dan Fortier, AICP

Retired Planner

 

 

 

From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of Richard McCarthy via MassPlanners
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2025 4:11 PM
To: Mass Planners <massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: [Massplanners] Filing Fees

 



Good afternoon,

 

I know I’ve seen filing fee analysis done. I’m hoping someone could forward their analysis to me.

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

Richard J. McCarthy, Jr.

Town Planner

1 Liberty Lane

Norfolk, MA 02056

508-440-2807

Office Hours- Monday through Thursday 9am to 6pm

Closed Fridays

 

As a reminder, please do not reply all to this email. If you have any questions or comments, email me directly. 

 

Please be advised that the Secretary of State has determined that e-mail sent by or received by municipal employees is a public record.

 

 

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