This Cost Recovery Ordinance is believed to be fair and equitable to both taxpayers and developers.
WHAT IS COST RECOVERY?
Cost Recovery is a mechanism, adopted by Town Council on September 4, 2002 to balance both the needs of the development community for a fair and thorough review process with the needs of the Davie community to ensure development is not subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
Cost Recovery is a pay-as-you go system of project review. Basically, as a project is reviewed by the Town staff for completeness, the hours spent by each staff member are directly ‘billed’ to an application.
Cost Recovery will ensure accountability, provide performance measures, ensure adequate review and scheduling and provide for the necessary resources.
HOW WILL IT WORK?
When an application is submitted, a base fee (or deposit) is provided at the time of submittal. The Town places this money into a separate account to track the hours spent per staff member and their hourly rate for each submitted application.
At each major step in the review process (Development Review Committee, Site Plan Committee, Planning and Zoning Board or Town Council) a balance sheet will be presented stating what, if any, additional money needs to be paid to the Town to continue the review. At anytime during an application review, a balance sheet can be provided, upon request.
Before an application is ‘finalized’ by staff, any outstanding balances will need to be paid in order for permits or approval letters to be issued.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT IS BEING CHARGED TO MY ACCOUNT?
At ant time during the process, a balance sheet can be requested. This sheet will include staff time, hourly rates, and account balance.
When an account is empty, staff will call an applicant and request additional funds. The funds shall be based upon the previous history of the project and the anticipated timeframe for completions.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
Prompt and thorough review can be expected due to the need for both the applicant and the staff member to review projects in a timely manner, against an active balance account.
Fair and Equitable costs to the public will result from cost recovery. Staff time for projects initiated by applicants will be charged back to the applicant, not the Town and the taxpayers.
Priority tracking is available for those projects that may have unusual time constraints. Again, these projects will pay a greater fee, which will in turn, be paid to the Town.
WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW?
Staff is here to assist you through this process.
1. The Project Planner will be an applicant’s contact with all issues that may arise during the review process.
2. Balance Sheets can be requested to ensure that a project is kept on track and moving forward
3. The End Product will result is a better project for both the To
wn and the Developer, as work will be done in a thorough review manner wasting little time.
This Cost Recovery Ordinance provides for true cost accounting, fast tracking and supplemental service.
COST RECOVERY ORDINANCE
The intent of this Ordinance is to assure that the Town fairly assesses Developers for the costs of providing the services necessary to issue development permits and services.
Cost Recovery provides for three different mechanisms to assist the development community.
1. All Applications. This process provides for staff resources to be billed at their hourly rate including benefits. A project planner is assigned to assist an applicant through the process.
2. Special Services. This process is utilized when an application requires special, unforeseen needs, such as traffic reports, environmental assessment or legal services.
3. Fast Tracking. An applicant can choose from a list of contractual full service firms to assist staff in processing applications. A project planner is assigned from the Town to ensure an expedited review timeframe. In addition, staff can be requested to fast track an application for an additional fee.
Call 954-797-1103
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