To approve a revised Fee Schedule for the Environmental Health & Sustainability Department to reflect fee changes, add certain fees, and clarify certain terms; and providing an effective date. Adopted Resolution No. 2025-8-1(R)

The Environmental Health & Sustainability Department collects fees to subsidize associated costs of providing services. The fee schedule is reviewed annually, and the department has been through a consultant review twice in the past 8 years, with the most recent update in 2022. During this time, the department had set a goal of recovering 50% of the operating costs. Recently, a citywide cost recovery policy was approved which puts a model in place for recovering costs on a continuum of services based on community benefit versus individual benefit. The department will go through a formal consultant fee review in the coming fiscal year. In the meantime, since most fees have not increased since late 2022, the recommendation will be to increase fees by 7% (Consumer Price Index over the past two years) and bring more formal recommendations back for consideration in the summer of 2026 following the consultant review.

Legislative Restraints and Effects: SB 1008 and HB 2844

There are new legislative restraints related to food service establishment permitting and fees. These changes go into effect September 1, 2025, and are reflected in this fee schedule revision.

Senate Bill 1008 limits local jurisdictions on the type of food establishment permits they may issue, and the fee amount they may charge annually for those permits. The bill states that the local jurisdictions may not require any permits beyond categories the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) would require. Additionally, the jurisdictions may not charge more for those permits annually than the DSHS would charge biennially. All food service establishment fees except for two fall well below the maximum fee threshold ($773). The two affected fees are Retail Food Establishment Type III, which will be lowered from $800 to $750 and the Temporary Event fee which will be lowered from $95 to $50. Additionally, some permit categories will be removed or allocated to another allowable permit category.

House Bill 2844 transfers permitting authority for Mobile Food Establishments to the State in July 2026. The DSHS will be writing rules to support this change between now and then. We have yet to hear whether the DSHS will have interlocal agreements with local jurisdictions for inspection activities. Mobile Food Establishment fees will remain the same with no increase as they will be removed from our records in the coming year.

Summary of Changes

• Food Establishment – Retail Food Store Type III will lower to $750 to meet the maximum threshold.
• Temporary Event will lower to $50 to meet the maximum threshold
• All other food establishment permit and reinspection fees will increase by 7% (CPI over 2023 and 2024).
• Fees for Seasonal, Additional Booths, Annual Temporary and Non-Profit Events will be removed as the State does not issue permits similar to these. Note that non-profits are completely exempt from permitting.
• Farmer’s Market Fee will be removed and they will be permitted as temporary events or farm stands moving forward since the state does not have a specialized permit for a market.
• Food and Pool Permitting Inspections will be removed. The first inspection is free and if a second inspection is needed, the operator will be charged a regular reinspection fee.    
• Mobile Food Inspection No-Show fee will be removed in anticipation of permitting shift in 2026.
• Food or Pool permit reprint fee will be removed as permits are now emailed and can be reprinted as needed by the operator.
• Food Manager & Certified Pool Operator courses will be removed. We no longer offer these classes as they are widely available in the private sector and online.
• Fees that will not increase and have been reviewed in the past two years include:
  • Waste Hauler & Waste Generator
  • Industrial Wastewater Pretreatment BMP
  • Entertainment Venue Permit Application and Notifications
  • Permit Renewal Late Fees (percentage based and clarifies a max of $100 if payment more than 30 days late)
  • Food Handler Class
  • Environmental Education Center Rental
• Industrial User Fee to be removed. These fees are now charged through the user’s water bill at 100% cost recovery. These funds are used to pay the North Texas Municipal Water District contract for associated (and state-required) inspection activities.
• Environmental Programming for Tours, Field Trips and Classes/Events have been clarified that the first 15 people are charged a flat rate of $75.00, and each additional person is $5.00. This is not a change in fee amount, but we are clarifying that classes and events are included in this for non-Plano-based groups.
• Adopt-a-Highway Registration Fee (one-time fee) is increasing to $300. The city’s sign shop used to be able to provide these for free to us, but are no longer able to do so, therefore, we are increasing to cover the sign shop’s costs (different funding source from ours).

In conclusion, the revisions outlined above will bring the department into compliance with recent legislation and provide a slight increase in fee revenue where possible. In Fiscal Year 2025-26, the department will participate in a formal review of all listed fees and services with a consultant and will align the fee structure with the cost recovery policy to the degree possible given legislative restraints.

This item will impact revenue collected from the revised Environmental Health & Sustainability Fee Schedule resulting in a slight increase in revenue to the General Fund and minimal impact to the Sustainability & Environmental Services Fund.       

Approval of this agenda item supports the City's Strategic Plan Critical Success Factor of Excellent, Innovative, and Accountable City Government.