Peoria City Council on Aug. 5 considered and approved a set of fee and code changes affecting development inspection fees, fiber-optic providers and multiple city fee tables.

Inspection fees (agenda item 24R): Deputy City Manager Mike Faust told council the city’s site-development inspection fee is calculated in Chapter 27 as 3.5% of site construction costs. Staff said that formula works for typical projects but becomes disproportionate for very large projects; as an example, Faust offered a hypothetical $550 million development that would, under the fixed percentage, generate inspection fees equivalent to staffing multiple full-time inspectors on site even when inspection needs would be far lower. Council approved an amendment that allows, upon applicant request for projects exceeding $100 million, a city-engineer review and a city-manager-approved fee “commensurate with the actual cost of service.” The motion for 24R passed 7-0.

Fiber and microtrench fees (agenda item 25R): Ben Ganados, development agreement coordinator, reviewed the fiber-optic communications ordinance that codifies fees previously presented to council. The framework includes an annual minimum fee (AMF) tied to number of subdivisions in a provider’s service area; ISPs that offer internet-access services pay 3% of gross revenue if that exceeds the AMF; dark-fiber (wholesale) providers were initially proposed at 6% of gross revenue. Ganados said he had worked with dark-fiber providers and staff to reduce barriers to market entry and planned a separate ordinance on Aug. 26 to lower the dark-fiber rate to 3% (parity with ISPs). Microtrenching fees (for a shallow trench deployment method) and AMF tiers were also included; the ordinance codifying the fees passed 7-0, and staff said CPI-based annual adjustments will apply going forward.

Comprehensive fee tables (agenda item 26R): Mike Faust presented wider amendments to chapter 27 fee tables (tables 1–19) and related council policies. Staff said development user fees had not been updated in seven years and presented a tri-annual review process. For building and site development fees staff recommended a uniform 15% increase based on a 10-year cost analysis that incorporated staffing, software (permit system) and wage adjustments; planning fees were recommended to rise about 20% but remain heavily subsidized (staff reported the city currently subsidizes planning-related fees by about $1.5 million annually); fire plan-review and recurring fire fees were recommended to increase about 50% to move toward cost recovery but not to fully double fees at once. Faust and Darwin emphasized that the increases reflect actual cost recovery under Council Policy 1-12 and CP1-11 guidance, and staff said fees will remain fixed for the coming three-year window under the tri-annual review plan. Council approved the comprehensive Chapter 27 amendments (26R) by a 6-1 vote.

Council members asked clarifying questions about where fee revenues would be applied, how the city would avoid creating barriers to development, and why a multi-year tri-annual approach was used instead of annual adjustments. Staff said increases are calibrated to be competitive with peer jurisdictions, to recover department costs (including new positions and technology), and to limit sudden spikes by adopting a three-year horizon; staff also pointed to a pre-application fee credit and an option for case-by-case engineering fee review for very large projects.

The three votes on inspection-fee exception (24R), fiber/microtrench (25R) and the comprehensive fee-table ordinance (26R) were recorded in the meeting minutes: 24R passed 7-0, 25R passed 7-0 and 26R passed 6-1.