Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors allowed a fee credit for a demolished storage building in Pine Grove toward fees for a new storage building to replace it, to be built by a contractor for Volcano Telephone Company.

Supervisors discussed future fees which staff is expects to recommend reducing, but shied away from applying future fee rates. County Community Development Director Aaron Brusatori cautioned not to allow retroactive fee reduction on the project, if the storage building was built before expected fee decreases.

Sharon Lundgren, president of Volcano Telephone said she wanted to move forward with the project now because the contractor, Christman Enterprises of Ione, already has laid out forms for the foundation, and has his equipment at the site. She said she felt bad making him wait.

County Planner Susan Grijalva, after a conference with Lundgren, said the building that was removed was 480 square feet, and the staff figured the cost of the new building’s fees at 3,000 square feet, and 82 cents a square foot for industrial impact fees. They subtracted 480 square feet, and the new fee, with the credit, would be $2,060, down from $2,460.

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse said the nexus study on capital facilities fees has a differentiation of fees, and industrial fees are lower than commercial. He said the distinction should be made if they offer a square footage credit offset.

Grijalva said the capital facilities fees include the jail and fire funds. General Services Administration Director John Hopkins said county are fees collected for administrative fees, debt service for the new admin building, and a jail fee.

Grijalva said if the new building ever ceases to be used for storage, a new occupant could begin a variety of uses, and there could be a building permit application to change uses. She said if fees are waived, then down the road, if usage changes, the building department would not collect the fee, because the assumption would be that they had been collected.

Supervisor Ted Novelli asked if the smaller, demolished building was used only as a storage shed. Lundgren said that was correct. She said the quality of the replacement makes it unusable for anything more than storage, as it is a single-wall metal building, with a roll-up door, no insulation, no bathroom and no running water.

Novelli said Lundgren was asking for assistance with fees, not a waiver. Plasse said the agenda listed it incorrectly as a waiver. The board voted 5-0 to allow credit for the demolished building, at the current industrial rate, toward fees for the new building.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.