We Help You Where You Need It The Most
Planning and Zoning Services With Cost Recovery
Cost recovery is a system that enables local governments with staff shortages and fluctuating workloads to provide expert customer service without adding additional cost to their current budget.
Throughout Florida, cost recovery is utilized by local governments to ease the planning and zoning workload, enabling staff to focus on vital issues while The Mellgren Planning Group provides support services and undertakes the more routine work. Cost recovery services provide needed services to residents without affecting your budget. Rather than subsidize municipal staff time through the general fund, an applicant pays for the services received. Hence, cost recovery is literally a system that allows local governments to recover the cost of services provided.
There are two types of cost recovery systems that have been implemented by TMPG for local governments. The most appropriate system depends on your volume of work.
SET FEE SCHEDULE
Local governments with a large review volume, such as a zoning department’s review of building permits, use a set fee schedule. We provide permit review for the set fee paid by the applicant. There is no additional expense to your government.
PER PROJECT
TMPG also provides cost-recovery services on a per-project basis. Projects can involve public hearing items that include rezonings, variances, land use plan amendments and site plan review. Under this system, the time and expense for each public hearing item is tracked as an individual project. The applicant pays a fee deposit and, as time is billed to the project and the deposit is depleted, the applicant makes an additional fee deposit. Any amount remaining in the account at the conclusion of the public hearing process is returned to the applicant.
RELATIONSHIP PARAMETERS
To better understand your needs, we meet with you to review and analyze your department’s current and future workload, and jointly determine the appropriate cost recovery system. TMPG establishes and maintains the system, providing scheduled cost recovery reports.
SUCCESSES
TMPG has established cost-recovery systems for local governments, including:
- City of North Miami Beach: TMPG established and currently maintains the concurrency monitoring system on a cost-recovery basis. As developers submit plans for development and redevelopment in the city, TMPG reviews the plans for impacts to water and sewer infrastructure, roads, parks, and solid waste facilities. We monitor the cumulative impacts of development over time and alert the planning department when deficiencies can be projected in the near term. We provide invoices for the work to the city, which charges the developers.
- City of Hallandale Beach: TMPG was contracted on a cost recovery basis to review and serve as staff for a large and controversial land-use plan amendment. The applicant paid a fee deposit to the city, and the city paid TMPG’s invoices from the deposit.
- The Town of Southwest Ranches: TMPG is currently is currently contracted to provide a full-service planning, zoning and building permit review department to residents, contractors and other businesses
