St. Cloud Permit Fee Hike Would Raise $800,000, Council Holds Public Hearing, Again on Monday

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud City Council will hold a fourth public hearing on Monday night on a series of increased permit fees that would generate an estimated additional $800,000.

The council meeting gets underway at 6:00 p.m., August 31st, inside city hall.

The council will take the public’s two cents on an amendment that drops the proposed update to the city’s building valuation data table and sets a firm effective date of January 1st, 2027. The valuation table assigns a dollar value to a project based on square footage, and the fee schedule is applied to that value to calculate what the city collects. Moving off the 2015 table St. Cloud currently uses would have raised permit costs on its own, separate from any rate change. Staff now say the valuation question can be revisited later.

Even without the valuation table, the rate changes are broad. A basic electrical inspection minimum goes from $35 to $55. Plumbing fixtures move from $10.50 to $15 each with a $50 minimum. A wall sign under 100 square feet goes from $33 to $50. Re-siding permits jump from $60 to $100, and a combined reroofing and residing permit from $75 to $200. Commercial plumbing and mechanical permits shift to a flat 2% of project valuation.

Figures presented by staff put the Building Safety Department’s 2027 budget at $3,701,658 in expenditures against $1,229,500 in revenue, meaning fees currently cover 33% of the cost. The proposal would raise that to 49%. Commercial permits account for $626,000 of the increase, with $174,000 from residential.

City examples put the increase on a new home between $250 and $1,150 depending on size. The St. Cloud Area Association of Realtors estimates the changes could add $1,000 to $4,000 to a typical new build. The association has not detailed how it arrived at those numbers. The Central Minnesota Builders Association is against any fee increases.

Building permit fees in St. Cloud have not been adjusted since 2007.

Adoption requires four votes.

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