Fee Schedule Modification FAQs

Fees are established to recover all or a portion of the costs associated with providing a service. California law requires that a City may not make a profit from fees.

The cost of providing the service is based on direct staff time and materials, department overhead costs and the cost of support from other City departments.

The best way to submit your comments is to send an email to feestudy@redwoodcity.org.  Also, please take a moment and answer our brief five-question survey about fees here.

Different cities use different approaches to setting fees. Typically, there are three central concepts regarding the establishment of user fees which are: 1) Fees should be assessed according to the degree of individual or private benefit gained from services; 2) Fees should be assessed without a profit-making objective. 3) Fees may be used to achieve other public policy objectives, such as encouraging (rather than discouraging) compliance with City requirements to obtain permits or licenses. Below are a few examples of commonly charged fees.

Comparison of Current and Proposed Fees to Fees Charged in other Communities

The fee modifications are being completed in a phased approach.  During this first phase, fees for Community Development (Building, Engineering, and Planning), Fire and Police will be adjusted. During the second phase, proposed for later this year, fees will be adjusted for Administrative Services, Library, Parks, Recreation and Community Services, and Public Works Services.

Currently, about 73 percent of the costs associated with the services provided are recovered by the fees collected.  The remaining 27 percent (about $2 Million) is covered by the General Fund. If the fees are not increased, the percentage covered by the General Fund will continue to increase as costs continue to rise due to inflation. This will reduce the General Fund dollars that are available for services that benefit the entire community such as police, fire and library.

• The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes in May 2017. Any adopted changes would go into effect 60 days later. 
• Moving forward, the fees are expected to be adjusted annually to avoid subsidizing fee services and moderate the impact of the changes. 

Go here to view the Staff Report.

Go here to view the presentation.

It has been so long since the last fee review and update, operational costs and inflation have continued to increase, but the fees recovered have not kept pace. Not all fees are going up; some are going down. This is because with new technology permit processing today requires less staff time and allows the City to reduce the cost of the permit.  

• Generally, Cities review their fees for service every three to five years, allowing a city to adjust fees based on costs, inflation, changes in process or to accommodate new regulations. 
• In Redwood City, it has been over 10 years since many of our fees have been reviewed and updated.
• Current fees do not reflect current costs.