Parowan — City staff presented a proposed methodology for calculating building-permit fees at the council’s Oct. 9 meeting, and offered an example calculation to show how the fees would be applied when Parowan returns building-permit processing from the county to the city.

What staff proposed
Staff said the city will use the International Code Council (ICC) building-valuation tables (updated twice yearly by ICC) to assign a per-square-foot building valuation by building type and fire-and-construction class. The valuation feeds into a formula that produces a base building permit fee. The city would then add variable surcharges for electrical, plumbing and mechanical work, a plan-review fee, and other standard charges (the state requires a 1% surcharge on permit fees).

Example calculation
Using the ICC figures cited by staff in the meeting, staff presented an example for a 2,000-square-foot stick-built single-family home. The example uses an illustrative $170.80 per-square-foot valuation and produced the following: base building valuation $341,600, base building fee $2,718.20, and a final permit total after surcharges and the state fee of approximately $4,128.14.

Other fee elements
Staff described several other administrative fees that would appear in the schedule:
- Reinspection fee: $50 (for repeated failed/garbage inspections; discretionary enforcement tool for inspectors).
- Off-hour inspection fee: flat rate for inspections outside normal hours where requested.
- Additional plan review: smaller fee if plans require a subsequent, focused review after the first review is completed.
- Contract plan review: for highly complex commercial projects the city may contract with third-party reviewers and pass actual costs to the applicant.

Why it matters
Staff said this approach is standard practice in Utah and elsewhere and is similar to the county’s current method, meaning permit applicants should not see surprising increases. City staff also said the formula better aligns permit revenue to expected inspection and plan-review workload.

Next steps
Staff recommended including the methodology and fees in the city’s fee schedule. Council members asked questions about reinspection discretion and off-hour inspections; staff said more procedural detail would be included in the administrative implementation materials returned to council with the formal fee schedule.

Speakers
- Staff member Keith — presenting building fee formula and example
- Staff member Dan — administrative comments and context
- Staff member Cali — implementation and workload comments

Searchable tags
["building permit","fees","International Code Council","plan review","Parowan"]