On May 16, 2018, the Planning and Zoning Board, acting in their capacity as the Local Planning Agency, initiated a new business item to review variance application fees. The Board found, based on preliminary research provided by Town Staff, that the Town was subsidizing many variance requests above and beyond the existing fee schedule. The Board subsequently presented this finding to the Town Council on July 17, 2018. Based on the information presented, the town Council directed the Town manager to adjust variance fee schedule to recover the full cost of providing the service.

On September 19, 2019, the Planning and Zoning board heard the ordinance in a different form that required cost recovery from all applications, including single family, and voted to advise approval by the Town Council as proposed, with the condition that if an applicant requests a line-item expense report that it be provided to the applicant. Minutes of the meeting are provided as an attachment to this report.

Attached to this report is an analysis performed by staff that reflects the average cost of typical variance by each classified type. Please note, the numbers presented are aggregated averages from the years 2017 and 2018 and do not necessarily reflect the cost of any one request. As such, the cost recovery system is designed to take an initial deposit to begin processing the application. Should the deposit be deficient based on charges relating to processing the variance, the applicant will be required to make additional deposits in order to continue the review process. Any remaining balance on a deposit(s) that is not charged to the variance application is refunded back to the applicant upon full completion of the variance process.