Aurora votes to increase cost of building permits

Developers will soon be paying more for building permits and other planning, zoning and engineering services in the city of Aurora.

Aurora aldermen voted 11-1 Tuesday to revise development service costs, which had not been updated since 2000, according the city's development office.

"We have to have fees that are relevant to today's world," Ward 10 alderman Lynda Elmore said. "And the fees that we have today are not."

City staff studied development costs in about 20 Illinois communities near Aurora or with similar populations. They found Aurora's development service costs for new buildings to be in the lower 10 percent of the community sample and development service costs related to remodeling existing buildings to be in the lower third.

The increases will bring Aurora's development costs to about the average of costs found in other communities, according the development office.

"We're not just talking about sending it through the ceiling," alderman-at-large Bob O'Connor said. "We're trying to be real and meet what's out there and reach some goals."

The cost increases will help the city decrease the time it takes to process permit requests, said John Curley, Aurora's building and permits director.

Developers will appreciate a speedier process and will not be turned away by higher permit fees because the charges are such a small percentage of total project costs, said Jerry Pocus, a partner in the Aurora-based architectural design firm ATMI.

Bill Wiet, Aurora's chief development officer, said council approval of the fee increases will allow the city to budget its money appropriately and prioritize whether more development staff should be hired to speed the permitting process.

But Ward Four alderman Rick Lawrence, the sole vote against the increase, said he wanted to see a plan of how the city would use money from higher development costs to increase efficiency before supporting the increase.