Concord City Council Approves New Fees, Some Fee Increases

CONCORD, NH — The Concord City Council on Monday approved increases in fees for some city services, created several new fee structures, and left some alone during its regular monthly meeting.

About 40 different fees, fines, and penalties for community development, the fire department, general services, and the legal department were eyed by the councilors. Recommendations by city staff included no increase, 100 percent increases, and smaller amounts between about 4 percent and 25 percent. Some fees have not been increased since 2007; others were last increased in 2015.

The proposal also included new fees such as several nonrefundable application fees for building and code services for staff time spent processing an application ($30); $445 to $890 annual monitoring charge radio box by the fire department for building owners that have not installed wired master boxes systems by July 1; $5 and $6 fees for plan copy per page fees and digital USB files for code administration and building codes, now that the department can print large format plans; and a $20 maximum fine for library of things, since the library has increased its collection.

The Proposed Ordinance & Non-Ordinance Based Fee Changes can be found linked here on the city’s website, in PDF.

City Manager Tom Aspell said departments look at all the ordnance and non-ordinance fees annually and make decisions on whether to leave them alone or raise them based on inflation, market conditions, or other factors.

Ward 5 Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown asked Aspell if developers were required to pay for traffic studies as part of the fee structure.

Matt Walsh, the deputy city manager of development, said, if the real estate project requires a traffic study, the city would review it and the developer would have to conduct one. If an outside review is required, the developer would be charged a fee, he said. The city also charges transportation impact fees, particularly for residential projects.

Roy Schweiker, a resident who regularly participates in city council meetings, said he was surprised at how few and how small the increases were, including some that were not being increased at all. Some, he said, were increased as little as 4 percent, and it was his general impression that the cost of doing business in the city was much higher than 4 percent. City departments where employees were getting bonuses were seeing a lot higher costs, too, he said.

“The problem is,” Schweiker said, “to the extent that we don’t collect the money in fees, it’s got to be paid out of the property tax. So, I guess, I would say, raised all these fees and raise them some more to make sure we are getting our expenses recovered and not getting them stuck on the rest of us.”

Schweiker said the fee for sewer hookups should also include the costs of expanding the sewer, which should be paid for by developers.

During the action phase, Ward 3 City Councilor Jennifer Kretovic said there were 12 new fees and was not sure if Schweiker’s comments were accurate due to those new fees.

Brown asked for clarification about sewer hookup fees, and Walsh said there were fees — including tiers. The city, he said, does not have impact water and sewer fees, per se, but did have water and sewer investment fees that were collected, but the council moved away from them years ago. It could, however, be revisited.

The proposal was then approved unanimously.

Other Public Hearings, Actions

The council approved a transfer of $65,722.88 from the wastewater fund to the capital fund.

The council approved reorganizing the general services highways and utilities division due to a long-time employee retiring. Aspell was asked by Ward 1 Councilor Brent Todd why the issue was being brought up now instead of when the budget hearings start later this week. Aspell said it was an opportunity to save money because of a vacancy. Todd also asked about the pavement painting and whether this would be sped up due to the changes. Aspell said it would vary between after street sweeping was completed, whether the weather was appropriate, and the need for better fog lines and markings when school starts in late August. Brown asked if there would be an updated budget, and Brian Lebrun, the deputy city manager of finance, said the changes would be reflected in the fiscal year 2025.

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