Grant County to review building fees

EPHRATA — A review of fees charged by the Grant County Planning Division has been postponed to midyear, after which fees may increase, according to Development Services Director Damien Hooper.

Applicants pay two fees, the permit fee and the plan review fee, Hooper said. The plan review fee is calculated as a percentage of the permit fee.

Fees are based on a schedule published by the International Code Council, Hooper said. The ICC publishes model building and safety codes. The ICC also assigns monetary values based on the type of construction, and those are the basis for fees in most jurisdictions.

The ICC updates the value tables each year, and Hooper said if county officials kept pace, they could have reviewed fees each year. However, the last full evaluation of fees was 2009-10.

“It’s been a while,” he said.

Hooper said the value tables have been relatively stable and county officials typically adopt the lowest values on the tables, Hooper said.

“The valuation rates don’t go up a lot,” he said.