FAIRMONT — Martin County commissioners heard from Planning and Zoning official Pam Flitter on Tuesday during a public hearing to consider a proposed 2020 fee schedule for her department.

Commissioners ultimately approved the proposal, with a minor adjustment to a proposed fee for zoning permits.

Flitter reviewed the proposed schedule with the board.

“It’s been since 2003 since there’s been an increase in the fees, except for our feedlots, which was done in 2018,” she said. “We’re looking at about a 17 percent increase.

“The reason for that is because of the increased cost of our administration, and we have more and more program requirements. So we really felt, after this much time, it was necessary to make that 17 percent increase. Part of this process is, we took a look at what other counties are charging, and what it costs us to administer the program.”

Flitter noted the different line items where costs will increase.

Conditional use permits and variances are currently $300 and will rise to $350. Re-zone is $400, moving to $450. Special meetings or hearings will increase from $500 to $550.

In addition, septic permits will see a change.

“We have a flat $150 fee for septics, and the septic program has changed,” Flitter said. “We now have septic permit type 1 through 3, and we bumped that up to $200. Then type 4 or 5 requires more paperwork, so we bumped that up to $400.

“For the septic-permit cluster system, we had $150 per household before, that’s [now] $200, and the septic loan program administration fee has been at $225 for quite a few years, and is now proposed at $275.”

As far as commercial zoning permits, those will be set at 5 cents per square foot with a minimum of $175, up from $50. Wind turbines and communication towers will be $250, up from $200. Land alteration (grading and filling) will rise to $150, an increase of $50.

Flitter then moved on to the flat fee for zoning permits, which are $125, with a proposed increase to $175, causing some discussion among the board.

“I want to make it clear that we don’t have the Uniform Building Code adopted in the county; we are giving land use permits,” Flitter said. “With a land use permit, we identify where they’re located and if they meet all the setbacks.

“A land use permit takes the same amount of time for a deck as it does with a house or a machine shed. We only handle outside of city limits; we do not handle anything inside municipalities. For all the building permits that we do, each one of them are looked at separately, but again, they require the same amount of time.”

“I’m still going to say no because of the planning and zoning permit going to $175,” said Commissioner Richard Koons. “Yeah, I know it’s the same amount if you’re doing a deck or a $300,000 house, but you’ve got to take into consideration that taxpayers are already paying these wages.

“I’d split the difference with you,” Koons told Flitter.

“I’m not here to negotiate, honestly,” Flitter replied. “The people that are receiving these permits are the ones who are using it.”

She pointed out that people are not being charged the fee every four years, but only when they need a permit.

“When I have to pay $175 to put a swingset in my yard and my neighbor’s got to pay $175 for a $500,000 house, we need some kind of a split here, and I don’t know how to do it,” Koons said.

“But [the work in Flitter’s office] is the same,” said Commissioner Elliot Belgard. “They’re not going out to inspect that $500,000 house, with the insulation and the wiring. All they’re doing is a one-time land use, where it’s going to fit in relation to setbacks and grants and it’s realistically the same.”

The board ultimately approved the fee schedule, with the exception of only increasing the zoning permit fee to $150 instead of $175.