Assembly passes fee increase

MAT-SU -- Continuing the process of evaluating current rates for services provided by the borough departments, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, on Tuesday, passed fee increases for the borough's land management office. At the Sept. 7 assembly meeting, assembly members unanimously approved an increase to fees at the borough's public works department.

Recently, the assembly has approved increases to platting and planning fees, as part of an effort to bring fees into alignment with costs. The goal of the fee increases, Borough Public Works Director Don Shiesl told the assembly on Sept. 7, is to bring the fees into alignment with the cost of providing service.

"The fees established do not cover the costs of processing applications, issuing permits, inspection of the permitted activities and enforcing compliance with the terms and conditions of each permit, nor are the fees enough to deter unauthorized activities within the public rights of way," public works staff wrote in an informational memo distributed with the proposed ordinance.

According to information from the department, nearly 700 driveway permits were issued in 2003. Each took between a half-hour and an hour and 15 minutes to process. About the same number of utility permits were issued, with estimated staff time at about one and a half hours for each.

Shiesl told the assembly his fee increases were aimed at keeping prior-to-construction fees low, with hopes of encouraging people to come in before they build, to avoid having to fix problems after the fact.

Several assembly members said they agreed with that reasoning, and agreed to return to a $25 prior-to-construction fee for placing a driveway. The after-construction fee was set at $250. The reason, Shiesl said, is that many people who come in prior to obtaining a permit get help locating a driveway safely. Many who don't, he said, end up building unsafe driveways that pose dangers to property owners and those driving in the borough.

"[The intent of the increase] is to pursue dangerous driveways," Assembly Member Talis Colberg said. "Does it matter much to you if it's $250, versus $100?"

Shiesl said it did matter.

"You need to have some sort of hammer, and financial is the only hammer I have," Shiesl said. "Money talks."

In discussing fee increases at the borough's land and resource management office Tuesday, Ron Swanson, director of community development, said it had been 10 years since the fees for services provided by that department had been evaluated.

Swanson said the changes suggested in the land and resource management office are sizable -- often doubling what fees were previously -- but not out of line with other areas of the state.

"The new processing fees and user fees, combined with rental and fair-market-value rates, will not only bring us closer in line with other quasi-public and public entities, but will bring us much closer to covering administrative and management costs than our existing, 10-year-old fee structure," staff wrote in an informational memo included with the proposed resolution.

Swanson said the fee increase is expected to generate an additional $8,000 to $10,000 per year.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.