By Jack Knocke
October 29, 2020
Editor’s Note: I owe Jack a big apology for omitting an important added portion of his opinion piece regarding City Building Costs. Mistakes happen and I made a big one! We are now posting his full opinion for your review.
Fernandina Beach city building permit costs have gone through the roof. This is true for residents and commercial builders. It is amazing as you look at the numbers. From 2017 to 2020 the number of permits went from 3,571 to 3,742. During that same period, staff went from 7.7 to 11 with a projected increase to 12 in 2021. Yes, you are right. They are also paying consultants to do studies. The building department is not supposed collect more than the cost of their services, so they have been increasing staff to eat up the excess revenues.
Some local folks looked at the data comparing city costs to county costs. It seems that the county costs are 1/6 of the city costs for commercial building and ½ of the city costs for residential – for the same service. Chip Ross, Dale Martin and Steve Beckman (FB Building Director) are running to defend the fees now that they have been exposed. Let’s hope that Steve makes the right recommendation to get costs in line or outsource to the county delivering a huge cost savings to city residents and builders.
The Common Sense Fernandina Beach group has long planned to take up the comparison of city/county costs and operations to recommend opportunities for improvement. Does this look like an opportunity to let the county do building inspections for all of the county including the city? Maybe we should be asking Dale Martin and our commissioners to look seriously at this major cost savings opportunity.
Is there anything that says that the city must have their own building inspection department? We should ask the commissioners on the ballot where they stand. Let’s all ask some questions and expect fact based answers.
Editor’s Note: Jack Knocke is a founding member of Common Sense, an organization that “advocates a balanced, common sense approach to local government spending.”
The city is charging $1500.00 for a demolition permit to tear down 5000 square foot metal building that the building code enforcement demanded to be torn down. The contractor said this is double the fee in the county. In addition, the property owner has to get approval from the Historic District Council for the permit to be issued. The fee is very high and if the city is demanding it be demolished would you not think the city should get the approval from the HDC prior to making the demand. Oh yes and the Council will not meet until December 17 the fee is due now, before the approval.
Tim, I sent your comment to the City Building official. Here is his response: “Our fees for demo are $100 for the first $2000 of cost. After the first $2,000, it costs $7 per thousand. So a $10,000 demo job would cost $156. A $30,000 demo job would cost $356 dollars.” Just how much did you pay to demolish the 5,000 square foot building?