Resolution Amending Building Construction Services Fee Schedule
What the county recorded
Staff recommendation
Approve
DispositionApproved
Approved Staff’s recommendation.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jul 14, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jul 14, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
This case, across meetings
BCS-26-0249 in full →Heard once. BCS-26-0249 appears on no other agenda in the archive.
- Jul 14, 2026BoardR76▶Approvedthis item
What was said
Machine transcription of 19m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 42% of 78 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
R76, JP.
Thank you. Um for the record, JP Murphy, Director of Building Construction Services, I have been sworn in. You're welcome, Mike. So earlier in the morning session we talked about the effects of House Bill 803. There are six big effects that affect the building construction services department. Three of them are tackled through this resolution, and the primary business of the resolution is to change our fee structure for those commercial fee types and other fee chart types that were based on valuation
and converting them to a per square foot chart. Let's see, what is this one? So uh I will not follow this agenda because it is late in the evening, but real quick, we haven't talked to you about building fees since 2008, if you can believe it. We've not changed the building fees since that timeframe. There have been some additions of uh a technology fee and some unlicensed contracting fees. But by and large, we've not talked about fee increases or structures since that time frame. So BCS fund is a special revenue fund. We operate like a
business. We are not at all tax supported, so we don't get uh involved in a lot of the tax amendment conversations that we just had. Uh it should be understood though that all of the funds that BCF col BCS collects is for the use of the Florida Building Code and is very necessary. Limited in the expenditures that it can be spent on. We do have five principal fee types. We have a general base fee, a site review fee, planning, plan review fee, and then what we will call building permitting fees.
That's going to cover your structural, your mechanical, your electrical, your plumbing fees, and then finally some ancillary service fees. Just to be clear, our 2104 fund or building services fund may not fund planning zoning, other governmental uh activities not related to obtaining a permit. You can't fund permits not related to um activities not related to enforcement of the Florida Building Code or any other ordinance. So that that is to say that you can't take some money out
of the BCS fund to go do some other fun stuff.
Without a legal opinion. What's that? Without a legal opinion.
That's correct. You know, we'll we'll miss having your legal opinion on these things. We love asking that question. Um so I mentioned House Bill 803, the the the key driver of why we're before you today. The top three things, the elimination of value-based inspection fees. There are some new permit exemptions I will briefly discuss, and then we have some additional fee reductions. For third-party inspections, also known as private provider inspections. A couple other things you should know about is there's some expanded timelines for single-family permit expirations.
It's either one year or three years, depending on when that permit comes in. We've already discussed the manufactured homes, and there will be a uniform building application. Our a seller program is going to be handling the programming of that for us. Because they have so many customers in the state's not really a concern for us. Some fee considerations I talked about we we've not uh significantly increased the fees, and that's not what we're doing here. Um we are simply changing one structure from another. We've used the term that this is
a band-aid fix. We have engaged Stantec to do a full fee study to look at what it costs to provide the services that that the building construction services provides. We expect that. that study to be complete and in front of you by the end of quarter four. So there may be some short-term upset with how the structure works if you compared some projects prior to to this structure change, but it will be short-lived because a full fee study is going to come to you in the fourth quarter of the year. Most
of our projects, particularly on the residential side, are already charged a flat fee or a per square foot fee. But on your commercial projects, you know, from mild to wild, they were always charged on a valuation basis. And this isn't a problem that's unique to Topasco County. Of our neighboring counties, four of the five were still using evaluation-based systems. So they're facing this problem as well. So for a comparison. comparison purposes to provide you well what will it cost, that data wasn't really available because it's all over the place. So I mentioned the five
fees. We're only going to touch the two fees, our admin fee and our permit inspection fees. The methodology here is I took three years worth of commercial data, particularly because commercial is mostly what this affects. Took three years of data. I looked at not only the straight line averages, we looked at where projects fell, and we kind of we did some weighted average based on the number of overall. permits in those and kind of tried to find the best fit number that recovered just the revenue we would
have recovered if we charged it under a square foot basis. So what that um what that led us to is our residential permits we already had language in the current resolution that just says charge a per square foot and so Commissioner Starkey to your comments earlier this this morning when Sean Foster talking about that three million dollar home wouldn't get charged based on three million dollars of value it would have gotten charged on the three I believe you said it was three thousand square foot or whatever the size of the home was so it would have get get charged the uh a per square foot
for that so similarly so you only
they got charged they got charged on the value of the home
correct and that's what we're we're we're fixing on the commercial side and eliminating on the residential side we are
We don't
do that, do we? We do.
Oh, you're kidding me.
So we don't anymore if you pass this resolution.
Okay, no we shouldn't be doing that. We need less regulation. I I mean it it's just by the time, not by the value.
Correct. Yeah, so our one of the things that our fee study is going to look at is how long do does plan review inspections, you know, there's 27 inspections on a residential home walking through the door, what does that time cost Pasco County to be able to provide those services and look at that holistically? So when we bring that back in quarter four, we'll have a better understanding of what that looks like and charge those fees accordingly. So it'll be more of a cost recovery um fee instead of just based on the size and scope of the project. We've
always used size and scope as a as a corollary for how to charge on.
I can say size because that's time, but value um I I don't see it. Yeah,
we totally agree with you. You know, and and the example I like to use is when you look at a residential uh new home, if you have a 2500 or 2500 square foot home, um, that may be builder grade versus a custom builder grade, it's the same 2500 square foot. Yeah. Our plan review doesn't differ whether you have marble floors and marble countertops or just, you know, L VP and Corian. So that doesn't change. The types of fixtures doesn't change, but that value can wildly move a permanent value. So we we seek to eliminate that in our fee
study by looking at what are those task elements that the county provides just cost.
So for commercial, kind of kind of same example. In Pasco County we have basically three major occupancy types that we see. Those are gonna be your how do you do this later? There we go. Institutional occupancies which are think of your hotel or your your hospitals, your ERs, the Moffits of the world. We have uh commercial alterations, commercial new And then we have business and mercantile. And so we talk about occupancy
classes for purposes of this study. One of the things that we wanted to focus on was we understood that those institutional classes are going to come in, those are the big dollar permits. Over 50% of our institutional permits that came in came in above $2. The bottom 50% is below $2, but still hover between $1.50 and $2 per square foot on a valuation basis. Again, we're not trying to increase fees, we're just trying to recover the same rate during the time frame until we get the fee study fixed.
So that is being charged specifically at $1.81 per square. However, on our business and mercantile, what we would call an alteration, a move in, move out. So a business owner buys, is going into a retail Space or they buy it, they buy a building and they want to go move into it. Rather than charging them the full dollar seven per square foot, a new construction would cost, we're looking at a 65 cent per square foot, so roughly 40% cut to that, so that
it's more affordable. We're not dinging smaller projects that may be occupying a larger square foot space, because that's where the incongruity. comes in when you move from a uh a valuation based a square foot because as your size of your project goes up, that's where your pr your permit fees go up. But valuation doesn't always go up in the in accordance with the size and scope of the project. We were sensitive to that when we made those modifications, and you can see that in the in this chart. And
these were actual projects. We had some car washes. I do apologize, there is one error on this that we caught that I caught while I was viewing this. This new square foot base fee for the assembly of the restaurant should be about $5,300. So you can see versus our old fee and our new fee, there are some projects. That would be would come in at a much lower rate, but then some projects that are gonna break even or maybe come in just a little higher. And that's just the nature of how moving to an averaging will work while we're studying
that the the full effects of our the fee study will cause. But by and large, we were we were sensitive and didn't wanna run into a situation where we're overcharging. a permit that may have come in a a few months earlier. And that's one of the things that we were controlling for.
And again, just to just point out, kind of based on the dollar where we were, that business and mercantile is targeted to small business commercial alterations. Your businesses and your retail operations, anything that's coming in as occupancy of business or mercantile, that alteration will come in at 65 cents. And your institutional, rather than being the $4. So for example, for example, we had one commercial project that came in with the $400,000. thousand dollar permit value. Just on the building permit fee. That's not including plan review or the trades or
anything else. That's the single line fee and that you know fixing that situation I think was was the intent of the Florida legislature when they they included that language in eight oh three and that's how we're this is how we're gonna be responsive to that. Any questions on the commercial and valuation fees before I move on? That's kind of the meat and potatoes of what's happening. There are some other flat fee fixes because of the nature of you don't have square footages on windows, so we put some flat fees in there to just just to fix that. Moving
on to administrative fees and exemptions, we already have a third third-party provider fee that if you're building a new home and you're using a private provider, it's $600. If you're building a new business or an alteration, uh it's $980 if you're using a private provider. One of the requirements of 803 is that commercial projects. Need to um reduce down twenty-five percent per trade, whether they're doing a plan review or whether they're doing inspections. Well, we're doing 100%. We're doing
away with the building permitting fee for those projects and just charging them a flat permitting administration fee. What a lot of folks don't take into consideration is the whole life cycle of the permit when they think about it. It's not just plan review and inspections. It's everything from our intake. We have a custom private provider team to make sure all those documents are correct. They have to review everything. They also look at some of we have a DCR team that's gonna look at the code requirements. If it's in a flood zone, they gotta look at the flood requirements. But a lot of stuff that's gotta get looked at. That's just before it gets approved. Then once it's approved,
we still have the full life cycle of public records and everything else that has to happen after that. So recovering a reasonable administrative administration fee is what we aim to do here. And basically, what we've done is for those projects that are going to be less than those 690-880 thresholds per trade, it's basically $45, a general base fee for each of those trades that come in that cover our administrative costs. That is Based off of a 2021 study that didn't ever get published, but we did do the time study on that. So those numbers are
grounded in some actual data on how long it takes us to administer those programs for private providers. So including those three additional new lines in the resolution is there, so we can be compliant with 803. And then finally, the big one. Any questions on project provider? Okay, I'm trying to go quick because I know it's uh it's getting late. Um the the finally the big the big one and one I just wanted to spell rumors on is the seventy-five hundred dollar permit
exemption. There is a seventy-five hundred dollar permit exemption where an owner or an owner's contractor can do work as long as it doesn't touch structural, mechanical, electrical, or plumbing. If you think about all the permit stuff, there's not a whole lot that's left over after that. Drywall is in a gray area, you know, it's particularly over a certain amount of drywall. It becomes part of the structure of the home. Windows, doors are still structural. We're basically talking about flat work, you're talking about stucco, you're talking about kitchen renovations that don't touch the
plumbing or the electrical. You want to do your cabinets. So we don't expect to see a whole lot of these exemptions coming in. They are an applicant is required to request an exemption to us. That is going to be done by a simple PDF. It's available on our website, they send it to us. We have a team that's going to look at it and email. email and go yes, no, it requires a permit. If a home is in a a single family dwelling is in a flood zone, it is not eligible for the $7,500 exemption. Work has to be done still by a licensed
contractor. So if somebody's doing unlicensed work for value less than $7,500, it's still a violation. The Sheriff's Office may pursue charges on that. We will not be doing that. Um and then finally Splitting projects is not allowed. So you can't do you know, I wanna do fifteen thousand dollars worth of of of work in a kitchen and I'm gonna do the front half of the kitchen, this on this permit and and the back half and that doesn't work that way. So But The
odd one of the oddities is we're not allowed to ask for copies of contracts when requesting building permits. It's not it's not legal. However They have to provide a copy of the contract or the cost of materials when requesting the exemption. So that language is included in this resolution as well. So other than that, I'm good. Any questions?
I I have some questions. Um not necessarily on this. Um but um okay, well where does a driveway permit come in here, right-of-way use permit come in?
Right-of-way use permits if it's with a new build, so if it's a new construction home, that right-of-way use permit will come in together with the new permit. And BCS facilitates that, but the Planning Development Economic Growth Department facilitates right-of-way use permits.
So I've had new homes built in my community and they have paved the whole front yard. Brand new homes. Um And so I I I just almost think you should just throw that right away use permit out the window 'cause there's no enforcement of it. The only people that get caught up in it are the people who are trying to do it legally. And then you say, Oh, you can't have two driveway cuts. You're only allowed to have one. And so the people who are honest
get stopped and the people who don't care just do it. So that's number one. Number two, we s we have this problem. that that someone in the county thinks that paper blocks Permeable.
Hervious service.
I can tell you where he lives, you cannot have paper block in the first seven feet, well at least Sarasota County. And and uh you you're in Manatee? Mm-hmm. Sarasota County could be in Manatee too. You have to do a poured apron in that first seven or feet or whatever, and then you can do the paper blocks. And because I've seen it in Gulf Harbor's when I first moved in there the county had to go in and do some work on someone's paper block driveway. I'm not sure if it was uh it was FGUA back then. And They were very upset.
At the re the way they had to put it when they put it back together. And they said they were gonna sue and I had FG We out there and they said there's nothing we can do about it. You know And They may take the break the bricks when they take it out to do the work, but you're in the easement area. And they don't have to replace your whole driveway, uh, if there's no more matching brick there. So What are you gonna what are you what is your department doing about these driveways and these yards that are Breaked over.
Because you guys consider impervious from end to end, front to back.
Well thank you for that question. I will start by saying uh my department is gonna work with the Planning Development Economic Growth Department, who is the department that has the authority over the youth the pavers and the use of the driveways that we're going to be use permit. I will tell you that we have been on several calls with the
How how is it the planners that have it when they're not the ones that go out and
it's under
the land development code.
Huh?
It's under the land development code, I think.
Yeah, papers are not a
affordable.
So the right-of-way use permit is with the planners?
Correct. Yes.
They issue the right-of-way use permit. Yes, ma'am. The planner.
It goes through that department.
Development review services would be the would be the division of the planning department that that handles. It's fallen
apart. It's not working. Public rate
inspections.
Every day I send you all pictures of
Bonding. Not working. All that kind of stuff.
It's not working.
Well we're having conversations on on enforcement, because that's really what this amounts to is is enforcement. Um
And I just had uh they poured the whole front yard in concrete two weeks ago. And I I let I let people know that it was formed up. And um
And those are code complaints if you do see them. You can those are code complaints. They're not
I'm not turning in my whole neighborhood.
But that's not part of that's part and not part of the fee schedule either. I think this would be
I think this would be good for uh I'm
good with your fees.
So this is this this is an action item and requires a motion in a vote. Is there any other comment on this item?
I make a motion. That's Chair Caffe. Second.
We have a motion to second. All in favor? Aye. In naives. It passes. All right.