Kendall County Times

The Montgomery Board discussed a proposed ordinance to amend the village code during its meeting on March 27.

The board heard the first reading of an ordinance to amend the village code regarding the comprehensive fee and deposit schedule for building and development within the village's jurisdiction. During a comprehensive review, village officials compared Montgomery's fee schedule to that of other communities in the area. Sonya Abt, Director of Community Development, said that had been done because other than a few additions in recent years to add in fees for new development features like antennas, solar panels and cell towers, the village’s fee schedule had not been looked at or changed since 2011, and many aspects of building, development and permits have changed since then, so the village code should be changed to reflect more modern practices.

The city discussed increasing planning fees from $400 to $600, raising annexation fees to $1,000 from $400 and changing subdivision/PUD fees to a base fee model with additional per acreage fees because of additional staff time for reviewing plans for larger developments, Abt said. Board members were not opposed to the changes, although they were concerned about residents trying to annex their land, as $1000 is feasible for commercial developers but might be a lot for residential. Since this is a first read the board asked staff to look into alternate options for their second reading but approved the overview of the process.

"If that is a concern of the board, we can also look, especially if it's for smaller residential lots for Montgomery Road," Abt said. "We can look at splitting it up so that anything less than an acre could be kind of the new $600 base fee and then anything over that would be a thousand dollars. If that would make the board more comfortable with those situations."

The fee review also included examining staff time and dedication to certain permit processes to help discern where to streamline and change fees and schedules to maximize efficiency for both developers and village staff, Abt explained. In addition to the other changes, the village will add a few fees for newer permits in the village, such as electric vehicle charging stations, detached garages, generators, and asbestos abatement. The main highlights of the proposed changes include the base fee for building permits move from $50 to 55 to $90 to 100, new construction fees increasing from $25 per 100 square feet to $30 per 100 square feet and work without permits will require a 100% increase in fee rather than 50% markup.