County considers higher fees for land-use reviews starting in 2026

Property owners requesting a land-use review or wetland and habitat review from Clark County should expect slightly higher fees starting in 2026.

Staff from the community development department presented the new fees during a county council work session Wednesday.

Chad Dragon, finance manager for the department, said county code requires application fees to cover all costs related to the requested service.

Costs unrelated to processing an application or subsidized by the county are paid for using grant funds or with general fund dollars, Dragon said during the work session.

“The cost of services usually increase each year, but the fees for these programs have not been updated consistently enough to keep up with that,” he said.

In the past, Dragon said, the county council has intentionally subsidized some of the fees so that applicants were paying only 85 percent of the total costs.

“The best way to reduce our reliance on the general fund is to keep these fees updated,” Dragon said.

Fee increases passed in 2024 that went into effect in 2025 have reduced the department’s reliance on general fund dollars by more than 27 percent when compared with 2024’s expenses, Dragon said.

Under the new fee structure, land-use review fees would increase by 1.8 percent and bring in an additional $30,000 in revenue, he said. Wetland habitat review fees would increase by 3 percent, with an additional $20,000 in revenue.

Currently, wetland and habitat review fees range from as little as $114 for development engineering plan review up to $3,123 for a final permit review.

“It does seem there’s a lot of work just bringing it forward annually, but I agree it’s a good thing to do these incremental increases (rather) than wait 15 years,” Council Chair Sue Marshall said.

The new fee structure will come back before the council for formal approval at a later date.

Shari Phiel: [email protected]; 360-562-6317; @Shari_Phiel