“Director” means the planning director for the city of Cle Elum, Washington.

“Flat fee permits” means permits or services for which a fixed sum or charge shall be paid by the applicant.

“Land use development proposal” means those proposals defined as a “land use permit” or a “flat fee permit.”

“Land use permit” means and includes, but is not limited to, applications for approval of permits relating to the use of land within the city, and shall be construed broadly to include all reviews, permits, or approvals sought under CEMC Titles 15 to 18.

“Processing costs” means all costs related to the processing of a land use permit including, but not limited to, actual time and materials costs for application review, assessment, engineering, inspections, legal, secretarial, administrative, publication, and other city processing costs, as well as consultant costs. Processing costs do not include flat fee charges for services.

A. The land use permit applicant shall pay to the city all processing costs associated with the processing of the land use permit, as such costs are defined in CEMC Section 17.150.020. If a preapplication meeting is conducted between the city and applicant, the city shall inform the applicant, in writing, of the processing deposit that must be submitted with the land use permit application. The processing deposit is separate from, and required in addition to, the application fees required by CEMC Section 17.150.030.

B. The director shall calculate the total processing costs and the deposit for a land use permit application according to the following factors: (1) the estimated number of hours of city staff time required to process the land use permit multiplied by the staff members’ applicable hourly rate(s); (2) the expected costs for postage, printing, publication, notice, posting, and other related administrative costs associated with processing the land use permit; and (3) the estimated number of hours of consultant and hearing examiner time required to process the land use permit multiplied by the consultant(s)’ applicable hourly rate(s).

C. The city will establish a segregated fund account for each application deposit required under subsection (A) of this section. The city will invoice the applicant monthly for all actual processing costs incurred, along with an administrative fee in an amount equal to ten percent of the invoice total. The applicant shall pay all invoices within fifteen days of mailing date. In the event the applicant fails to pay per this section, the city shall draw from the fund. Applicant shall at all times maintain the initial deposit amount requested by the city. To ensure the efficient processing of the land use permit application, the applicant and the city shall execute a memorandum of understanding, in a form acceptable to the city attorney, for payment of processing costs required herein.

A. Hourly rates for city staff time to process land development proposals shall be established by the current fee schedule as adopted by the city council.

B. Routine city processing costs shall be established by the city council.

C. Predevelopment application review (“PAR”) costs shall be charged to each company or individual requesting information in furtherance of a development permit application on a time and materials basis using hourly service rates from the city-adopted fee schedule. All project development representatives for development projects shall be given one initial thirty-minute free consultation meeting with city staff. Smaller development proposals such as one single-family home with the homeowner as applicant (one time only), small business tenant improvements of three thousand square feet or less, and similar small-scale projects as determined by the director shall be exempt from the PAR fee. In the event that small-scale project PAR review(s) take more than twenty hours of city staff time, any additional time spent on the exempt projects shall be charged time and materials cost for the remaining preapplication review.

A. The city shall have the right to determine when to use outside consultants to provide any or all of the necessary work related to processing land use development proposals.

B. Whenever review of a land use application requires retention by the city for professional consulting services, the applicant shall reimburse the city the cost of such professional consulting services.