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Morgan Hill, California
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Zucker Systems
Once the City transitions to an electronic submittal process through the TRAKiT data
management system, the Division will need larger computer monitors to facilitate
electronic plan review. Management Staff affirmed that the City included money in
their TRAKiT budget for larger monitors and also for tablets for the field users, which
is excellent. Staff said that each user will be able to decide whether they want one
large monitor or two monitors. Monitor size and needs will be determined on a case-
by-case basis, as some staff are already equipped with adequate monitors.
We also confirmed through the TRAKiT vendor and staff that the City purchased
Blue Beam software (electronic plan review software) as part of the TRAKiT
implementation project, which they intend to phase in slowly around June of this year.
Fees
We reviewed the most recent planning fee schedule (FY 15/16), which staff indicated
is undergoing an update to provide for full cost recovery. The fees are fairly easy to
understand and staff reported that fees include surcharges for technology to maintain
the permit tracking system, an archive fee to defray file archiving costs and general
plan maintenance fee to support general plan maintenance in addition to indirect and
direct costs. The City also charges a Habitat Conservation Plan fee (HCP) to facilitate
habitat conservation projects.
We did receive considerable feedback through interviews that the fees are perceived
to be too high and raised significantly, annually. In addition, the fees for the RDCS
and expedited review processes are considered too high. With regard to expedited
review, interviewees stated that fees charged include baseline application fees, plus
the actual cost for contract planners, plus 15% overhead for City staff to manage
consultants and that the fees are disproportionate to the value since the City can’t
demonstrate that expedited review service is quicker than the standard review service.
We were unable to locate an expedited fee on the adopted Planning Fee Schedule,
however Staff corroborated the above reported costs for the service. Under the
“Policy Issues” heading of this report, we discuss the expedited review process issues.
In that discussion, we noted that expedited review services are provided by contract
planners that are responsible for processing a project up to final decision by the
Director, Planning Commission and/or Council. After a final decision is rendered, the
project is handed off to a regular full-time planner for standard processing through the
building and engineering permitting stages, when applicable. The Building Division
indicated that expedited review is available at the Building Permit stage, upon
applicant request and that the fee includes required works required by planning staff.
97.
Recommendation:
Expedited Review fees should be shown on the updated
Planning Fee Schedule in the interest of transparency.