(a)

There is hereby imposed an administrative fee, for the various costs of the City's internal administrative and outside fee consultant processing and review of applications, submissions, or requests concerning proposed matters affecting and concerning development, utilization, or improvement of realty in the City of Plantation including, but not limited to, the review and processing of applications for plats; site data records, oversized offsite water distribution/transmission main and sewer collection/force main facilities, installation of utility lines and pipes, land use plan amendments (LUPAs), planned or existing street, pavement, sidewalk, street marker signs, seawall, bridge installation, culvert or drainage facilities, modifications to site plans, applications for use variances, applications for physical development variances, certain building inspections, applications for and periodic review of Development of Regional Impact (DRI) orders, document review in developments involving unified control, a change in zoning, pre- and post-permit conferences and project reviews (specifically including, but not limited to, the development, monitoring, and completion of critical path governmental approval reports and all review and monitoring incident to or in any way related to such reports), and certain building plan, and bridge installation plan reviews and inspections as explained in subsection (e) herein (hereafter, "review requests"), such fee to be equal in amount to the City's costs (determined by City resolution) or actual costs, in terms of Staff's and outside fee consultants' time expended in such review and processing, and a surcharge for certain requested fast-tracking plan reviews and inspections as provided for in subsection (e), including advertising and similar directly related charges. Notwithstanding subsection (d) below, where the City has enacted an ordinance or adopted a resolution determining its costs for a portion of a review request, the City's staff and various consultants will not be required to maintain records of the various time expended and tasks conducted for that portion of work associated with the review request which is covered by the determined cost, and no additional debit against a trust account for such determined portion shall be made.

(b)

Persons who file any review request which necessitates administrative or outside fee consultant review and processing shall pay prior to or at the time the review request is made, an initial preliminary deposit which shall be credited toward the fee charged for such review and processing, and shall pay additional deposits as may be required from time to time into a trust account.

(c)

When the person pays the initial deposit, a financial account for said person's review request (the "trust account") will be opened and maintained throughout the entire review process until the person receives a certificate of occupancy or Building and PZED Departments determine that no further action is necessary for the review and processing of the review request, at either of which time the project account will be closed and any remaining funds therein shall be refunded to the person depositing same, no later than two (2) months after the project account's closing date. The project account shall be monitored on a periodic basis. Before the account reaches a zero or negative balance, a supplemental deposit will be required before any further review or processing continues. The person making the initial deposit will be notified when a supplemental deposit will be required. The amount of the supplemental deposit will be fifty (50) percent of the initial deposit. Several supplemental deposits may be necessary depending on the complexity of the review request.

(d)

The staff of the various departments of the City of Plantation and the City's outside fee consultants who are involved in the review and processing of review requests shall maintain records of the time expended and tasks conducted regarding each such request. A debit based upon the time expended and the applicable hourly rate (plus a surcharge as provided in subsection (e) for certain requested work on fast-tracking projects) shall be charged against the trust account. For purposes of this program, the applicable hourly rate shall be equal to a staff person's actual hourly rate of pay (if such person is paid by the hour) or an approximation of his or her hourly compensation (based upon a weekly salary divided by forty (40) hours, together with an additional factor reflecting said person's hourly value of fringe and pension benefits), if said staff person is a person who is compensated on a salary basis. The applicable hourly rate for review and processing by the City's outside fee consultants shall equal their actual hourly charge for such review and processing. A debit against the trust account shall also be made which shall reflect the costs of administering this program, which charge shall be based upon the actual effort involved for such administration.

(e)

This authorized program shall not replace the imposition and collection of structural permit fees, which building permit fees shall be collected to defray the costs of up to two (2) nonpriority structure plan reviews in a normal single-plan review procedure or up to two (2) nonpriority plan reviews in a fast-tracking plan review procedure, and inspections which are not requested on a priority basis and which are requested when the applicable departments are open during regular hours (or during the regular business hours of any City's outside fee consultant engineering firm).

"Fast-tracking"

is defined as a method of construction where plans for component parts of a structure are reviewed on an as-being-built basis (including pre-and post-permit meetings with staff for such multiple plan critiques). When fast-tracking inspections or plan reviews are requested on a priority basis, or when the same plan for a component part of a structure is reviewed more than twice, the applicable hourly rate for Staff and outside fee consultants involved in such review and inspections, together with a surcharge of such applicable hourly rate(s) (such surcharge to be implemented, established, and changed from time to time by resolution), shall be assessed against the trust account of the person requesting such work. When non-fast-tracking inspections or plan reviews are requested on a priority basis, or when the same plan is reviewed more than twice, the applicable hourly rate for Staff and outside fee consultants involved in such reviews and inspections shall be assessed against the trust account of the person requesting same. The cost of any inspections for fast-tracking and non-fast-tracking development which are requested when the applicable departments would normally be closed (or outside of the regular business hours of any City outside fee consultant engineering firm) shall be assessed against the project accounts of the person requesting same.

(f)

The amount of the initial deposit for the different types of review requests shall be established, and from time to time amended, by ordinance or resolution of the city council. It is the express intent of the city council and mayor of the City of Plantation, Florida, in enacting this cost recovery program that the City's costs of administrative and outside fee consultant review and processing of review requests, as required or necessitated now or in the future by the City's ordinances, resolutions, policies, or procedures, shall be borne by the person initiating the review request. To the extent that this authorized program is not fully implemented by resolution as provided, the fees and charges provided for elsewhere in the Code of Ordinances for such unimplemented review and processing, if any, shall be valid as not inconsistent with this program, fully chargeable, levied, and collected.

(g)

This program shall not apply to review requests which are originally initiated by or on behalf of the City of Plantation or another governmental entity acting in its governmental capacity; such as, but not limited to, Florida Department of Transportation highway proposal commentary, reviews of Broward County transportation improvements, reviews of proposed amendments to the Broward County or local land use plans, and reviews of Developments of Regional Impact (DRI); provided however, that the initiating governmental entity does not charge the City of Plantation for its review, processing, and comment upon Plantation's review requests of a similar type or nature.

(h)

The preceding subsection (g) shall not apply to review requests which are initiated by another governmental entity or agency acting in a corporate or proprietary capacity, such action including, but not limited to, a governmental entity's review requests incident to the erection of buildings or structures within Plantation (such as post offices, libraries, or governmental office buildings).

(i)

Except as provided herein, any notification provided in this section for supplemental deposits from the City of Plantation to a person initiating a review request shall be made in writing. It shall be the duty of persons initiating review requests to provide on the filed review request a continuously updated contact information for such official notification.

(j)

Flat Fee Determined Trust Account Charges: The City has determined to impose certain flat fees which shall be collected by the PZED Department at the time applications are filed with the City for the matters affected thereby. The determined flat fees that are due at the time applications are made, and when additional trust account charges may be required, are set forth in the table below.

(k)

All applications may require in addition to the flat fee stated in Table 417-1, variable fees for consultants as determined by Department Director which shall be charged pursuant to the Cost Recovery System set forth in this Code ("CR"). Examples of consultants include, but are not limited to: civil engineering analyses, environmental studies, geotechnical studies, marketing analyses, parking studies, planning analyses, structural engineering analyses, surveying, topographical studies, traffic studies, or Legal Review. Cost recovery fees shall also be assessed for any and all advertising that is either standard or in excess of the minimum property notification required as determined to be appropriate by the Mayor or the City Council.

(l)

Where variable cost recovery fees are required, the applicant shall post an initial cost recovery deposit of $1,000.00 or such greater amount as is determined appropriate by the DDH. Flat fees are non-refundable; only unused portions of CR deposits may be refunded, even if the application is withdrawn by the applicant before a final determination is made.

(m)

The PZED fee schedule shall be set by Resolution of the governing body of the City as part of the annual budget or by separate Resolution. Any adopted fee schedule for PZED may be adjusted as authorized by Sections 2-421 of the City Code.

Table 417-1
Fees and Cost Recovery Deposits

¹- Trust account initial deposit and all time charged through cost recovery; subject to account replenishment

²- the "Residential" fee is for individual homeowners or homeowners' associations or condominium associations

³- for review and approval of permanent or 1, 2, and 3-day licenses issued by the State of Florida

⁴- for any parcel owner(s) desiring to be annexed into or detached from the City's jurisdictional limits

⁵- does not include Broward County Planning Council fees

⁶- includes distance separation verification

⁷- included as part of the related LUPA, plat, rezoning or site plan fee

⁸- other than minor development conditional uses up to 6,000 SF

⁹- conditional uses for a new business owner at the same location as an approved (but not expired) conditional use or for a business owner approved at a specific location that is proposing to relocate to a different location will pay 50% of the original fee and may be subject to a Trust Account if the process warrants additional costs

¹⁰- if not already part of a related site plan application extension

¹¹- this fee is assessed if the PZB or CC agenda has already been published and/or the application(s) have already been advertised and the applicant desires to be deferred to a future hearing at a date certain

¹²- LUPAs that require only a local amendment (a/k/a "Small-Scale")

¹³- LUPAs that also require an amendment to the Broward County Land Use Plan

¹⁴- outdoor seating and repainting applications are listed separately

¹⁵- includes Non-Vehicular Access Line (NVAL) amendments and other Delegation Requests

¹⁶- no charge is assessed for the 1^stand 2^ndmeeting, $250.00 flat fee per each additional meeting, excluding properties located within the Plantation Gateway District

¹⁷- for reimbursement of Broward County recording fees

¹⁸- $250.00 for a single building; $50.00 per every 2 buildings beyond the first one; includes inspection fee

¹⁹- flat fee for up to 3 hours of research only; thereafter, the cost recovery fees apply after the establishment of a Trust Account

²⁰- for all legal document review by Staff and City Attorney, including Shared Parking Agreements, Cross-Access Agreements, Declarations, Restrictive Covenants, etc.

²¹- The $1,500.00 fee covers one sign on the property and shall include up to three (3) distinct code provisions that the applicant is requesting relief from for that sign. The fee for any additional code provisions beyond those 3 is $500.00 each. The non-refundable application fee per each additional sign requested by the applicant is $500 per sign (including up to 3 distinct provisions for each sign).

²²- 50% reduction if the subject property is located within the Gateway District and/or for all units that meet County's definition of affordable/attainable/workforce housing

²³- Level I = where the nature of the event does not require any deployment or monitoring by the City Police, Fire Suppression, or Emergency medical rescue resources; Level II = where the nature of the event does require a minimal deployment or monitoring by the City Police, Fire Suppression, or Emergency Medical Rescue resources (i.e., less than 10 persons); Level III = where the nature of the event requires material deployment or monitoring by the City Police, Fire Suppression, or Emergency Medical Rescue resources (i.e., 10 or more persons—cost recovery shall apply)

²⁴- for certain temporary signs that are not exempt from obtaining a permit as defined by the Sign Code

²⁵- per Landscape Code

²⁶- other than minor development use variances up to 4,000 SF

²⁷- includes all Flexibility provisions pursuant to the City Code of Ordinances and Comprehensive Plan, including flex, reserve, commercial flex, LAC units, etc.

²⁸- $1,000.00 base fee for homeowners that request a relief for after-the-fact construction

²⁹- Simple letter: $100.00, to confirm Zoning District Map and Future Land Use Map designations; and whether a proposed use is permitted at a specific location;Complex Letter: $400.00, to confirm Zoning District Map and Future Land Use Map designations and whether a proposed use is permitted at a specific location; to provide development approval history; applicable minutes, ordinances or resolutions; and the status of landscape code compliance

Table 417-2
Minor Development Approval Fees

TABLE 417-3
LEGEND

(Ord. No. 2597a, § 3(Exh. A), 3-24-2021; Ord. No. 2023-009, § 1, 7-19-2023)

Editor's note— Ord. No. 2023-009, § 1, adopted July 19, 2023, repealed § 27-418, which pertained to flat fee determined trust account charges and derived from Ord. No. 2597a, § 3(Exh. A), March 24, 2021.