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City of Marathon officials say new, higher, permit fee schedule will simplify the rebuilding process

By David Goodhue
A toppled gumbo limbo tree is partially buried in sand on Sombrero Beach a few days after Hurricane Irma landed in the Florida Keys in September. The city of Marathon in the Middle Keys was hit hard by the Category 4 storm, and city officials introduced a new building permit fee schedule Tuesday, March 27, they say will make rebuilding quicker and less confusing.
A toppled gumbo limbo tree is partially buried in sand on Sombrero Beach a few days after Hurricane Irma landed in the Florida Keys in September. The city of Marathon in the Middle Keys was hit hard by the Category 4 storm, and city officials introduced a new building permit fee schedule Tuesday, March 27, they say will make rebuilding quicker and less confusing. Photo by David Goodhue/dgoodhue@flkeysnews.com

Obtaining a building permit in the city of Marathon will likely cost more money moving forward, but the process will be streamlined and homeowners will know the full price up front, which contractors, residents and elected officials said this week is a much needed change, especially for those still rebuilding after September’s Hurricane Irma.

The five-member City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to make the new fees effective immediately, but city staff will still have to crunch the numbers to ensure the formula is feasible. City Attorney David Migut said the changes will most likely be ratified by the City Council at its next scheduled meeting, April 10 at 5:30 p.m.

The new fee schedule is 1 percent per square foot based on a builder charging $200 a square foot for a site built home and $125 per square foot for a manufactured home.

City Manager Chuck Lindsey used as an example a 1,881-square-foot home. Under the new formula, a homeowner would pay around $3,800 for the building permit on that house.

The same homeowner would pay slightly less, around $2,700 under the out-going permit fee schedule, but under that system, there would be separate fees for things like electricity, plumbing and more. These add-ons could delay the process for months.

“It’s really complicated and it takes forever,” said Councilman Mark Senmartin.

Lindsey said the new fee schedule is needed to raise more money for the city’s building department, which is funded with building permit fees, and to simplify the process so people can rebuild quicker. Marathon was hit hard by the Category 4 Irma, and although much of the city has recovered, many people are still only in the beginning processes of rebuilding.

“Some people think Irma is in our rear view mirror,” Lindsey told council members. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

The city waived fees until Dec. 1, but there is still a backlog of around 500 permits Lindsey said. That, and the fact that Marathon charges less than other nearby municipalities for building permits, has put the city’s building department in financial harm’s way, Lindsey said.

“Less than a month ago, we were really getting into crisis mode,” he said. “In six months, we processed the same amount of permits that we do in a year, and we did it with the same amount of staff.”

Senmartin was initially concerned about raising costs on homeowners still suffering from Irma, because the numbers city staff proposed a few weeks ago were higher than the ones agreed upon Tuesday.

He was the only council member who voted against the then-proposed fee schedule. But, he said he was pleased with the system Lindsey developed Tuesday and voted with the rest of his colleagues to accept it.

“Two weeks ago, the numbers were insane,” he said Wednesday. “Four, 5, 6,000 dollars in excess.”

Other council members agreed the new numbers are a needed improvement over the old system.

“I would at least know what I was looking at,” Councilman Steve Cook said from the dais Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 4:29 PM with the headline "City of Marathon officials say new, higher, permit fee schedule will simplify the rebuilding process."