Effective January 2009, Amador County will see an increase in building permit fees for local roads. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting, the board voted to approve a local-roads traffic mitigation fee of $250 dollars per Average Daily Trip. The fee increase stems from an April 2008 report that cites a need for an increase in local road fees. The new fee constitutes an increase of $233 dollars from the previous fee of $17 dollars per ADT. During the meeting, David Brown of Sierra Pacific Industries addressed the board. He stated that SPI is currently working in seven different Northern California Counties, and that problems with building and funding roads top the list of public works issues for many regional municipalities. Brown cited his company’s difficulties in reconciling provisions for funding improvements, while meeting county service needs. Brown then stated that SPI has offered to hire a traffic engineer to conduct an independent review of the county’s traffic perplexities, in order to supplement the County’s own Nexus Study. Public Works Director Larry Peterson welcomed Brown’s offer to collaborate and coordinate on the significant question of the Commercial and Industrial fees within the traffic mitigation fee structure. The Board then voted to accept the County Traffic Nexus Study, apply the $250 dollar ADT fee, and accept SPI’s offer to research commercial fees and provide the Board with a comparison of other districts.