SR 09-27-2011 3KD
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City of City Council Report
Santa Monica
City Council Meeting: September 27, 2011
Agenda Item: 3-y-
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Scott Ferguson, Fire Chief
Subject: Resolution to revise the fee schedule for fire inspections of commercial
buildings.
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the attached Resolution to amend the
current fire inspection fee schedule for commercial buildings in order to create a tiered
fee schedule based on the size of the building or unit instead of having a flat fee for all
commercial inspections.
Executive Summary
This report presents information and requests adoption of a tiered fee schedule for fire
inspections on commercial buildings. Currently, there is a flat fee of $131.00 for all
commercial fire inspections. The proposed tiered commercial fee schedule is based on
the time it takes an Inspector to conduct the inspection and process the paperwork and
is based on the square footage of the office space or building being inspected.
Therefore, the tiered fee schedule is more equitable to business owners, where busi-
ness owners with smaller office spaces will pay less than business owners with larger
offices spaces.
Background
In the Spring of 2010, the City hired Revenue and Cost Specialists, LLC, as part of a
City —wide fee study, which included a review of the schedule for fire inspections and
plan reviews fees. In that review, the consultant found that in order to make fire inspec-
tions cost neutral, the City would have to increase fees. On July 1, 2010, the City
adopted new fees reflecting the results of the consultant's study.
The City established fees for residential building fire inspections on a tiered basis de-
pending on the number of units in the building. For example, buildings with 3 -15 units
paid less than buildings with 16 -49 units. The tier represented how much time it took to
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conduct the fire inspection and complete the associated paperwork. Currently, the fees
for residential inspections range from $116.00 to $395.00. In contrast to the tiering of
residential inspection fees, the commercial inspection fee was established as a flat fee
of $131.00.
Once the tiered residential fees were established, staff began to look at tiering the fee
schedule for commercial building fire inspections as well. Staff conducted an internal
study to create a tiered fee schedule for commercial buildings inspections based on
square footage and how long it would take to inspect these buildings and complete the
associated paperwork.
In compiling this proposed fee schedule, staff researched fee schedules for other cities
in the Southern California area to compare their fees for commercial fire inspections
The proposed fees include individual suite or unit inspection fees and common area in-
spection fees. The individual inspection fees range from $73.00 for spaces 2,000
square feet or. less, up to $365.00 for spaces 10,001 square feet or more. The common
area fees start at $146.00 for a single story common area and increase based on
square footage of additional floors. The tiered fee schedule for commercial building in-
spections is attached to the Resolution as Exhibit A.
Creating a tiered commercial fee schedule will make the fees more equitable to building
owners having smaller square footage. Over 50% of the individual unit commercial in-
spections performed by the Fire Prevention Division will be $73.00.
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Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
Because the fees for some users will increase and the fees for other users will de-
crease, the financial impacts associated with the adoption of the proposed Resolution
should be negligible.
Prepared by: Nancy Johnson, Fire Marshal
Attachments:
Forwarded to Council:
- � /y
Rod Gould
City Manager
A. Resolution and Proposed fee schedule
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Reference Resolution No.
10610 (CCS).