Kelowna pushes through increase to development permit fees

KELOWNA – Development application fees for a host of city services will be adjusted, mostly upward, after a consultant’s review.

Community planning manager Ryan Smith told Kelowna council the schedule of fees for such things as zoning amendments and seasonal farmworker housing permits have not been reviewed or amended since 2011 and the city is losing money by not recovering as much staff costs as possible.

“The study shows development fees are generally not managed well in other communities,” Smith said, and in addition to being too low, are often marked with piecemeal reviews and missed opportunities to charge certain fees.

While some fees will go down, Smith said fees will increase approximately eight per cent, increasing the average cost recovery from 64 per cent to 72 per cent and are consistent with development fees in other communities.

Hidden within that average is the cost recovery aimed at for-profit developers versus home-owners who might just want to put an addition on their house.

Consultant Deloitte LLP said Kelowna recovers 91 per cent of staff time devoted to developer applications, a number staff would like to see closer to 100 per cent.

While it is not possible, or even desirable in certain cases, to reach 100 per cent cost recovery, Smith said staff want to target 75 per cent cost recovery.

Annual inflation increases will also be built into the amended bylaw and plans are to more closely track staff time spent on individual applications for the next review.

Find past stories from Kelowna city council here.