To repeal in its entirety Section 16-18, Board of Adjustment Filing Fee, of Article II, Fees Generally, of Chapter 16, Planning and Development, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Plano, Texas; repealing and replacing in their entireties Sections 16-19, 16-21, and 16-22, of Article II, Fees Generally, of Chapter 16, Planning and Development, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Plano, Texas; and providing a repealer clause, a severability clause, a savings clause, and an effective date. Adopted Ordinance No. 2025-11-2

The City Council heard a presentation in the preliminary open meeting on October 13, 2025.

The Planning & Engineering Departments collect fees to subsidize associated costs of providing services. The departments recently underwent a thorough fee review in collaboration with the Budget & Research Department and consultants from MGT. The citywide Fiscal Roadmap cost recovery policy put a model in place for recovering costs on a continuum of services based on community benefit versus individual benefit.  Efforts were made to tie fees to that fiscal policy, with a goal of reaching 40% cost recovery. This proposal meets that goal, with Planning achieving an anticipated 41.0% cost recovery rate and Engineering achieving a 56.1% cost recovery rate.

New Fees - As a result, the following new fees are proposed to recoup expenses for work that was not previously considered under the Planning & Engineering fee ordinance:

1. Neighborhood Conservation District – Since this involves both Heritage and Zoning actions, it is a unique consideration and was tracked separately as a new fee. Conservations Districts were recently added to the Zoning Ordinance.
2. Subdivision Ordinance Variance – This request was not previously tracked and charged. A fee is proposed.
3. Request to Call a Public Hearing or Waive the Two-Year Waiting Period – These legislative items are agendized for Planning & Zoning Commission consideration. A fee is proposed to cover expenses.
4. Plan or Plat Extension or Reinstatement – These legislative items are agendized for Planning & Zoning Commission consideration. A fee is proposed to cover expenses.
5. Site Plan Inspections – Planning recently started conducting these inspections to ensure compliance with Zoning Ordinance standards including parking and landscaping.
6. Open Space Plan – These have become more standard and warrant a fee.
7. Reasonable Accommodation – Added to acknowledge and document cost, but there is no fee recommended to consider an accommodation due to the nature of the request.
8. Director’s Interpretation – This is a time-consuming process that was not previously charged a fee for service.
9. Appeal of Director’s Interpretation – This is a time-consuming process that was not previously charged a fee for service. These legislative items are agendized for Planning & Zoning Commission consideration.
10. Nonconformity Determination – Planning recently began reviewing requests for determination of nonconformities to better respond to changes in state law.
11. Address Change – New fee acknowledging recent requests.
12. Certificate of Appropriateness (CA): Application Pre-Work – No fee is recommended, but included to distinguish from CA Application Post-Work, below.
13. Certificate of Appropriateness (CA): Application Post-Work – New fee acknowledging staff time to review applications for heritage property compliance with preservation standards. No fee is charged if a CA is requested prior to work, so cooperation with program standards is incentivized.
14. Engineering Plan Review – Technical review of engineering plans to ensure compliance with city standards, codes, and infrastructure requirements.
15. Engineering Plan Review (Resubmittals) – Additional reviews are required when developers resubmit revised plans in response to initial City comments or correction requests to ensure all issues are properly addressed and plans meet City standards. 

Changes - The following changes are proposed to existing fees:

1. Zoning Fee Combined for Residential and Commercial Zoning – These two fees are rolled into a single “straight zoning fee” due to the limited number of cases and lack of meaningful distinction at this stage in the city’s development.
2. Traffic Impact Analysis – Traffic Impacts Analyses are scaled; this fee is proposed to be split to recognize the difference in review of a regional analysis compared to a local analysis. These fees cover costs in Engineering and Planning.
3. Board of Adjustment fees – Simplified to fewer categories. Moved from Building Inspections to Planning fee schedule to reflect change in primary support for the Board.
4. Street Name Change – Split this fee to acknowledge that the service is less time consuming/expensive before final plat filing.
5. Tree Removal Prior to Plan Approval – Additional fee burden for removal of trees under the city’s tree preservation ordinances, prior to approval of a plan to remove.

Fees Removed - The following fees are proposed to be eliminated from the fee schedule as noted below:

1. Tree Preservation Plan/General Tree Survey – This review is done with the Preliminary Site Plan and is no longer a separate document. A separate fee is unnecessary.
2. Annexation/Disannexation – As the City no longer has extraterritorial jurisdiction or unannexed property in the city limits, this fee is not necessary. Recent annexation cases have been limited to boundary adjustments with neighboring jurisdictions and are typically initiated by a local government.
3. Priority Processing – Due to reduced timelines from legislative changes, such as “30-day shot clock” requirements, this process is no longer practical or in use.
4. Subdivision Mapping Fees – This fee is currently zero and is for an internal service. It is recommended to be removed from the fee list.

A detailed list of proposed fees can be found in the attached ordinance.

This item establishes new fees for multiple development services.  The increase for each service varies and the exact amount of additional revenue is indeterminable at this time; however, for FY 2025-26, a formal fee study estimates an increase in revenue of approximately $445,495 to the Planning Department and approximately $797,094 to the Engineering Department.  Future year amounts will be based on development and services needed.  All additional revenue will go to the General Fund Budget.

 Approval of this agenda item will support the City's Critical Success Factor of being an Excellent, Innovative, and Accountable City Government.