Jacksonville Council waives permit fees on city projects

The Jacksonville City Council voted Monday to waive building permitting fees for upcoming projects which will end up saving the city money on a new school construction project.

The contractors who will build the next Kitty Stone Elementary School and city’s public safety building will be spared the charge, which city leaders said would have otherwise been passed back to the city and the schools.

Jacksonville city administrator Jarrod Simmons estimated that the permitting fee for the school project, for which the city has given $5 million, would have generated $65,000, and that the city project would have generated $50,000.

Simmons said if the city charged that fee to contractors, the building projects would have likely risen in cost by an equal amount.

The city has not decided to waive a separate fee, business license fees. Officials said at a recent meeting that it makes sense to charge those fees, which officials said would not be directly added to the building costs.

In November, Jacksonville City Schools selected Auburn-based First Team Construction to build Kitty Stone, for which the school system has budgeted $13.9 million.

The city's $5 million contribution for that project and the $11.6 million the city plans to spend on the safety building derives from a 2013 bond issuance, from which the city has also planned to draw enough money to renovate or move city hall.