Atascadero Municipal Code Art. 5 Requirements: Fees and Costs

All applicants, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, shall pay an issuance fee and all other costs and charges as established for the work permitted pursuant to this chapter.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

Issuance fees and charges for repairs, inspection, or engineering collected under the provisions of this chapter shall be deposited in the respective funds from which the corresponding disbursements were made.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

(a) The following shall be exempt from paying all fees: the United States, the State and all departments of the City, the Atascadero Mutual Water Company. Outside contractors performing work for the Atascadero Mutual Water Company shall not be exempt from the payment of fees.

(b) The Engineer may grant a permit without an issuance fee if he or she finds that the work to be done has been requested by the City in connection with proposed public works.

(c) If the Engineer determines that the waiver of any part of the fees is necessary to promote the safety of the public or its general welfare he or she may waive all fees and deposits.

(d) In cases where the fee is waived, the permittee shall be liable for the actual costs of any work required to be done by the Department in restoring the public place, right-of-way or street to be in as good a condition as before any such work was commenced. Furthermore, the Engineer may, in the future, require the delinquent deposit from any such permittee if a bill rendered in accordance with this chapter becomes delinquent.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The fee for each true copy of a permit to the permittee shall be twenty-five cents ($0.25) per page.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The schedule of fees or charges will be those recommended by the Engineer and adopted by the resolution of the City Council amended from time to time. Where work for which a permit required by this chapter is started or proceeded with, prior to obtaining the permit, the specified fees shall be doubled, but the payment of such doubled fee shall not relieve any persons from fully complying with the requirements of this chapter in the execution of the work nor from any other penalties prescribed in this chapter.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The permittee is liable for and shall pay for all the Engineer's departmental costs related to the permit over and above the permit issuance fee and including, but not limited to, the following:

(a) The permit issuance fee if that has not otherwise been paid;

(b) Engineering, which includes design, inspection, survey, and tests;

(c) The cost of any inspection, transportation, or test made;

(d) The cost of repairing or restoring the public place, right-of-way or street and all appurtenant facilities to the same or equal condition that they were before being cut or damaged as a result of the permittee's activities;

(e) The cost of furnishing and/or maintaining any lights, barricades or warning devices;

(f) The cost of alteration, removal, replacement, and/or repair to traffic signals and devices, the removal and replacement of temporary and/or permanent traffic stripes and any other expense for traffic control;

(g) The cost of removing or remedying any hazardous condition;

(h) The cost of tree-trimming;

(i) Any other cost to the City caused by the permittee's activity.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

Except as otherwise provided herein, whenever in the provisions of this chapter, any costs are to be charged to the permittee, and no other method for the calculation of such costs is specified, such costs shall be the actual costs including overhead and depreciation in accordance with current practice in charging for work performed for the public and as defined in the encroachment fee resolution as adopted by the City Council.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The Engineer may issue a permit without any inspection fee or deposit for work which will be inspected by a qualified governmental agency which will furnish evidence to the City to the effect that the work will be inspected and will comply with the minimum standards required by the City.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

If any applicant receives a permit pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and a governmental agency fails to make the inspection or fails to file evidence as required by this chapter, the Engineer may inspect the work and the permittee shall pay the actual cost of such inspection to the City.

(Ord. 332 §2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

Unless exempted from this chapter by law or by the Engineer, before obtaining a permit each applicant shall deposit with the Department a deposit which may be in the sole discretion of the City either cash, a certified or cashier's check, a certificate of deposit pledged to the City, a letter of credit or a surety bond, in a form and for a term satisfactory to the City Attorney in a sum equal to 150% of the actual cost of the work which would be required to restore the public place, right-of-way or street to its original condition, or for correcting any condition occasioned by, or arising out of, any failure of the permittee to comply with any and all conditions of the permit. Where the size and nature of the project warrant, the Engineer may require, the additional deposit of $1,000 to indemnify and reimburse the City for work done by, or for, the City in correcting traffic hazards, unsafe conditions and any emergency condition occasioned by, or arising out of, the doing of any work under any permit issued to the permittee. This section shall not apply to any work done by utility companies or by the Atascadero Mutual Water Company by their own employees. However, if a utility company or the Atascadero Mutual Water Company uses an outside contractor to perform any work, the contractor or the utility company must file a deposit in accordance with this section.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

A deposit may be in the form of a special deposit to be maintained as security for a specific permit issued to the applicant or may be in the form of a general deposit to be maintained as a security for all of the permits issued to an applicant. If an applicant maintains a general deposit it shall be with the understanding that he or she will pay all bills sent him or her by the Engineer for work described in this chapter. The amount of the deposit shall be sufficient to cover all costs connected with the permits. An applicant shall make a general deposit in an amount sufficient to cover on-going and anticipated encroachments in the City, as determined in the sole discretion of the Engineer.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

(a) Any deposit required by the Engineer pursuant to this chapter shall be payable to the City and filed or deposited with the Engineer prior to issuance of a permit. Deposits returned to the applicant shall be less any costs authorized to be deducted pursuant to this chapter.

(b) Thirty days after the satisfactory completion of all authorized work and fulfillment of all conditions of the permit, the Engineer may release up to 90% of any deposit made pursuant to this chapter, upon application of the permittee if in the discretion of the Engineer the applicant has completed the work subject to permit hereunder in a manner which is consistent with the permit and to the satisfaction of the Engineer. For any deposit so returned, the Engineer shall release the balance of said deposit to the permittee prior to the expiration of a 24 month period from the date of completion of work covered by such permit.

(c) For permits where the actual cost of work to the permittee is $25,000 or greater, the permittee may establish with the Engineer, in the Engineer's sole discretion, a schedule of incremental milestones at each of which a partial release of the permittee's deposit, as specified in such schedule, may be released by the Engineer if all work done in that increment and prior increments has met the conditions of the permit to the satisfaction of the Engineer.

(d) The foregoing notwithstanding, the City may retain each deposit made for an encroachment permit, in whole or in part, in such amounts and for such period of time as is deemed necessary in the discretion of the Engineer to assure satisfactory completion of the work governed by a permit granted pursuant to this chapter.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The Engineer may accept a certificate of deposit, in lieu of cash, made payable to order of the City to cover any deposit required by this chapter.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The Engineer may require any type of security that has, in his or her opinion, become insufficient for protection of the public interest, to be increased to such an amount as he or she has determined will be sufficient to protect the public interest.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The Engineer may, in his or her sole discretion, accept negotiable paper in payment of any permit fee (including engineering and inspection fees), deposit or other payment required by this chapter.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 §4, 2004)

No security or other form of indemnification is acceptable which bears an expiration date other than that determined by the City, but in no case shall such indemnification have an expiration date earlier than 24 months from the date of completion of the encroachment.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

If the permittee maintains a general deposit with the City for the purposes of paying incidental fees due under the permit or any other fees which the permittee may owe the City, the Engineer shall bill the permittee monthly for all fees and costs chargeable under this chapter and may deduct said amounts from the general deposit so maintained with the City. When amounts are deducted from a deposit, the permittee must restore the deposit to its original amount within 15 days.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

In the event that an applicant maintains no account with the City, all fees and costs shall be payable on demand as hereinafter provided prior to issuance of the permit, or if such fees or costs arise after issuance of the permit, they shall be paid prior to the next inspection required pursuant to the permit issued hereunder. The Engineer shall bill for such fees and costs on a monthly basis. If, within 30 days after a bill has been sent, the permittee does not pay the same in full, the Engineer shall cancel the permit if he or she is unable to recover the amount due from any security the permittee has filed pursuant to this chapter. If the deposit or security is insufficient to pay the amount due, the City may enforce collection by any and legal means available to it.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

At the request of a permittee who maintains with the Engineer adequate security as provided in this chapter and to whom 10 or more permits have been issued monthly, for three consecutive months, the Engineer may waive the requirement covering prepayment of the issuance fees and bill the permittee for issuance fees covering permits issued subsequent to such request. The Engineer may revoke such waiver at any time.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

The Engineer may elect not to issue further permits to the permittee and may hold any security provided by the permittee as long as any bill remains unpaid.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

An issuance fee may be refunded when a permit has been issued as the result of an error not made by the permittee.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

All other provisions of this chapter notwithstanding, fees deposited for any permit issued pursuant to this chapter may be refunded in whole or in part if such fees were erroneously collected or if the work was not constructed by the permittee and no inspection requests were made.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)

If other refunds are in order, the plan check fee may be refunded also, provided that the plan check has not been made, or has been erroneously made, by the City.

(Ord. 332 § 2, 1997; Ord. 438 § 4, 2004)