The Community Development Committee met 03/12/2025. The meeting was on the shorter side at only 15 minutes and the action items were all essentially housekeeping in which fees were updated and the Municipal Code clarified.
4 of the items were approved unanimously and one was held at the request of city staff until the next meeting.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
REQUEST TO APPROVE TEXT AMENDMENTS TO MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 4 BUILDINGS, SECTIONS 4-162(c), 4-292(c) AND 4-418(h), AND THE REINSPECTION FEE BE INCREASED TO $75 AND ADDED TO THE VARIOUS PERMIT FEE SCHEDULES – Initial inspections are covered under the cost of a permit. Inspections Supervisor Kurt Craanen explained that there were two situations in which the city charged reinspection fees. The first was when a contractor called them out to a job and said they were ready for a rough inspection but then they were not ready for the inspection and the city had to come back.
The other was when they were called in after a permit was expired. He gave the example of a furnace being installed in a residential home and the contractor never calling for a final inspection. The permit expires after two years. The city will sent a notice to the home owner at the end of those two years, but if they don’t respond then the city won’t conduct the inspection. If, 10 years later, they decide to sell their home and a real estate inquiry form is done and they find out that they have an open permit, if they want to correct the open permit and have an inspection done, the city will come out but they will charge a fee because the permit is expired and the homeowner had been duly notified at the time of the expiration.
The current reinspection fee was $35 and it had not been updated in over 20 years. They wanted to increase it to $75 to better cover the cost of city staff time to come to the property and conduct the reinspection.
City staff was also requesting that the text of the Municipal Code be updated so that the code itself no longer specifically listed the fee amounts but rather stated that a fee schedule was on file in the Office of the City Clerk. The purpose of this was that it made it easier to update fees. Rather than having to bring individual fees to the committee and Council for an update, they could update an entire fee schedule and bring a lot of updated fees to the committee and Council for approval at one time.
REQUEST TO APPROVE TEXT AMENDMENTS TO MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 4 BUILDINGS, SECTION 4-161, AND THE VARIOUS PERMIT FEE SCHEDULES BE UPDATED TO INCREASE THE EROSION CONTROL PERMIT FEE TO $50 4-162(c), 4-292(c) AND 4-418(h) – This item was held at the request of city staff until the next Community Development Committee.
REQUEST TO APPROVE AN UPDATE TO THE ELECTRICAL PERMIT FEE SCHEDULE TO CORRECT THE FEE AMOUNT TO $85 FOR WORK COSTING $1,001 TO $10,000 – Per the memo on this item, “Electrical fees were increased in the 2025 Annual Budget; however, there was an error in the fee amount for work costing $1,001 to $10,000.” The correct amount should be $85 not $75.
REQUEST TO APPROVE TEXT AMENDMENTS TO THE MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 4 BUILDINGS, SECTIONS 4-475 TO 4-499 PERTAINING TO HVAC – The sections of the Municipal Code in question pertained to the Board of Heating Examiners. This board no longer existed. The city used to issue license for HVAC contractors and the Board of Heating Examiners would administer the tests and issue the licenses. Now, however, the state rather than individual municipalities issues almost all licenses which makes more sense because when individuals are licensed by a municipality they are only licensed to perform work within that municipality, but when they are licensed by the state they are licensed to perform work within the entire state.
The proposed update to the Municipal Code would remove the language that still remained about the Board of Heating Examiners which no longer exists and whose work is no performed at the state level.
REQUEST TO APPROVE THE CITY OF APPLETON MAINTAIN ITS CURRENT SELLING PRICES FOR BUSINESS/INDUSTRIAL PARK LAND AND HOLD OPTION FEES – The current selling price for land in Southpoint Commerce Park is $43,000 per acre. Economic Development Specialist Lily Paul told the committee that every year city staff compared Appleton’s prices with those of surrounding communities. This year, as a result of that comparison, she recommended keeping the prices unchanged.
Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) asked if there would be any advantage to increasing them. Ms. Paul responded that doing that would make Appleton not competitive and potential buyers would go where the land was less expensive.
Community Development Director Kara Homan also pointed out that right now most of the lots that were available were in Southpoint Commerce Park which was in TID 13. The money from sales of land in Southpoint go back into TID 13. The city wanted to have competitive prices because it would create increment when the land that was purchased was developed.
All of the items except the one that was held were approved unanimously by the committee.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1263780&GUID=E029E9B9-A219-4C4C-9953-D8E56C8366D0
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