Butte County Municipal Code § 3-40 Payment of fees required

The fees specified in this article for the processing of applications for land use entitlements shall be paid at the time of the filing of the application. In no event will an application be determined or deemed complete unless and until the applicable application fees have been paid in full.

(Ord. No. 3070, § 1, 5-11-93)

All or part of any fee specified in this article may be refunded or transferred to a related application upon the order of the Board of Supervisors, if the applicant is a public entity or nonprofit charitable organization or if the Board of Supervisors finds that it is otherwise in the public interest to do so.

(Ord. No. 3326, § 1, 4-8-97; Ord. No. 3987, § 4, 7-22-08)

(a) Building Permit Fees. A fee shall be paid for each permit in accordance with the latest adopted Butte County Master Fee Schedule. The determination of valuation for the purpose of establishing Strong Motion Instrumentation Plan fees for new construction shall be made using the most recently adopted Building Valuation Data Table, as published in "The Building Standards Magazine" published by the International Conference of Building Officials, rounded off to the nearest dollar. To establish fees in mixed occupancy buildings, the County will determine the amount of square footage occupied by each occupancy type and calculate the fees separately for each type of occupancy.

(b) Reserved.

(c) Investigation Fees. When any work for which a permit is required by the Butte County Code is commenced prior to obtaining said permit, the investigation fee equal to sixty percent (60%) of the amount of the permit fee shall be imposed, in addition to the payment of the permit fee. The payment of this fee shall not relieve any person from fully complying with the requirements of the Butte County Code in the execution of the work, nor from other investigations prescribed therein. The Building Official may waive this investigation provision on written request by the applicant/permittee showing that circumstances beyond the control of the applicant/permittee have prevented him or her from obtaining said permit. This investigation provision shall not apply to emergency work when it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the building official that such work was urgently necessary and that it was not practical to obtain a permit therefor before the commencement of work. In all such cases, a permit must be obtained as soon as practical to do so, and if there be an unreasonable delay in obtaining such a permit, the investigation fee as herein provided shall be charged, in addition to the permit fee.

(d) Refund Policy. The Building Official shall not authorize the refunding of any fee paid except upon written application filed by the person originally paying the fee. The Building Official shall deduct all Development Services Department costs prior to authorizing any refund and shall charge one (1) hour at the building division standard hourly rate to process the refund application and recover costs related to application, file set-up, and file archiving fees. Refunds may be processed as follows:

(1) The Building Official may authorize the refunding of any fee paid which was erroneously paid or collected. (Refund processing fee not required.)

(2) The Building Official may authorize the refunding of permit fees and the plan checking fee when the application for a permit is withdrawn or cancelled before any plan checking is done.

(3) The Building Official may authorize the refunding of the permit fees paid prior to the expiration of the permit providing no work has been done pursuant to the permit.

(4) The Building Official may authorize the refunding of the permit fees paid prior to the expiration of the permit application, if the permit requested is not issued, but not after one hundred eighty (180) days from the date of fee payment.

(5) The Building Official shall not authorize the refunding of any filing fees, nor any plan checking fees, for work plan checked.

(e) The Director of Development Services shall require any unpaid balance of fees due the Department of Development Services on current applications or prior applications be current and/or paid in full prior to permit issuance or finalization.

(Ord. No. 3070, § 1, 5-11-93; Ord. No. 3120, § 1, 2-22-94; Ord. No. 3269, § 1, 6-11-96; Ord. No. 3865, § 1, 12-2-03; Ord. No. 3954, § 2, 2-13-07; Ord. No. 3971, § 4, 11-27-07; Ord. No. 4001, § 8, 3-24-09; Ord. No. 4139, § 4, 10-24-17)

* Editor's note—Section 2 of Ord. No. 3269, adopted June 11, 1996, repealed § 3-42 in its entirety. Formerly, § 3-42 pertained to land development division fee schedule and derived from § 1 of Ord. No. 3070, adopted May 11, 1993, and § 2 of Ord. No. 3120, adopted Feb. 22, 1994.

Planning Division fees shall be as adopted by Resolution of the Board of Supervisors as part of the Butte County Master Fee Schedule.

If any portion of a project is billed at the hourly rate, all project-related tasks will be billed at the hourly rate, instead of flat fees for some portions and hourly rates for others.

These fees are subject to periodic adjustment based on the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index (ECI) for State and Local Government.

(Ord. No. 3070, § 1, 5-11-93; Ord. No. 3120, § 3, 2-22-94; Ord. No. 3269, § 3, 6-11-96; Ord. No. 3391, § 1, 1-13-98; Ord. No. 3865, § 2, 12-2-03; Ord. No. 3880, § 3, 6-22-04; Ord. No. 3940, § 6, 10-10-06; Ord. No. 3945, § 4, 11-21-06; Ord. No. 3952, § 2, 1-23-07; Ord. No. 3971, § 5, 11-27-07; Ord. No. 4001, § 9, 3-24-09)

(a) Hourly fees for all personnel within the Planning Division of the Department of Development Services are adopted by Resolution of the Board of Supervisors as part of the Butte County Master Fee Schedule. The fees in the Planning Division are subject to periodic adjustment based on the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index (ECI) for State and Local Government.

(b) For applications that are charged hourly fees, the applicant shall deposit with Butte County the sum set forth for each application. Concurrent applications require the applicant to deposit the sum of all matters being concurrently processed.

(c) When the initial deposited funds are depleted to an amount equal to twenty-five percent (25%) of the original deposit, no additional processing of the application will occur until the applicant deposits with Butte County sufficient funds to restore a balance equal to the amount of the initial deposit, unless a lesser amount is approved by the Director of Development Services or his/her designee. In the event the applicant does not provide sufficient funds to continue processing an application, the application will be denied.

(d) Funds shall be maintained in a separate budget control account.

(e) After final action of the appropriate legislative body, any funds remaining in the account shall be returned to the applicant.

(f) Applications requiring legal notification will be required to deposit an additional fee for estimated publishing costs, as prescribed. If the actual costs for County employees' time and publishing are less than the amount deposited, the remaining amount of the money shall be returned. If the costs are greater than the estimate, the applicant shall pay the additional amount. In the event that payment is not received for the additional amounts, the Department of Development Services will notify Central Collections.

(Ord. No. 3070, § 1, 5-11-93; Ord. No. 3120, § 4, 2-22-94; Ord. No. 3269, § 4, 6-11-96; Ord. No. 3865, § 3, 12-2-03; Ord. No. 3940, § 7, 10-10-06; Ord. No. 3945, § 5, 11-21-06; Ord. No. 3971, § 6, 11-27-07; Ord. No. 4001, § 10, 3-24-09)

Editor's note— Ord. No. 4139, § 5, adopted October 24, 2017, repealed § 3-45. Former § 3-45 pertained to periodic adjustment to planning division fees and derived from Ord. No. 3940, adopted October 10, 2006; and Ord. No. 4001, adopted March 24, 2009.