Malibu : City Fee Schedule Updated

The City Council has added new Planning Department fees and revised some Building Department fees to update a comprehensive fee schedule approved last year.

City officials say the fee schedule, which will take effect March 12, is designed to recover from users the city’s actual costs for building, planning, public works and administrative services.

The new Building Department fees are for minor projects and repairs that require less attention from city staffers and consultants than new residential or commercial construction. They include such fees as $312.50 for a city environmental health specialist to review a request for a repair of an existing private disposal system and $312.50 for a geology site review where no engineering geology report is submitted.

The new planning fees are for services not clearly specified in the city’s original fee schedule and for services that have been added by the Planning Department. They include $1,000 for a final tract map review, $500 for a final parcel map review and $500 for an archeological survey of a property.

Archeological surveys are required for any earth-moving that calls for city permits or review under an ordinance passed last October to protect the city’s natural and cultural resources and Chumash Indian sites. The city plans to hire an archeology consultant and a consultant to act as the city’s Chumash cultural resource manager to implement the ordinance.

Typically, archeologists charge thousands of dollars for a survey, planning director Robert Benard said. However, the city’s archeologist may be able to reduce the fee by doing several projects at once, he said.