BACKGROUND
A zoning verification letter is issued by the Planning Department for a specific property or properties to confirm zoning, potential future development, or to verify that an existing property or use conforms with the City’s current zoning regulations. Currently, the City charges a fee of $264 per property (folio number). This fee includes one hour of research. For requests requiring research beyond one hour, an additional fee of $159 per hour is charged. In terms of best practices, the following is a comparison of the fees charged by similar sized City’s for zoning verification letters:
|
Municipality
|
Fee
|
Per Property/Folio
|
Research Fee
|
|
City of Miami Beach
|
$264
|
YES
|
$159/hour
|
|
Miami-Dade County
|
$236.67
|
YES
|
NO*
|
|
City of Miami
|
$200
|
YES
|
Not Specified
|
|
City of Coral Gables
|
$305
|
NO
|
Not Specified
|
|
City of North Miami
|
234
|
YES
|
Not Specified
|
|
City North Miami Beach
|
$100/$250
|
NO
|
$75/hour**
|
|
City of Aventura
|
$100
|
NO
|
$75/Hour
|
|
City of Hollywood
|
$324
|
Not Specified
|
Not Specified
|
|
City of Hallandale Beach
|
$400
|
Not Specified
|
$100/hour
|
*Miami-Dade County does not charge a research fee. However, if they determine the request to be “complex” they charge a minimum fee of $473.34
**The City of North Miami Beach charges $250 if significant research is required.
The City’s current fee of $264 per property is comparable to the fees charged by other municipalities.
ANALYSIS
In certain instances, multiple zoning letters are requested within a unified development site for each folio number. This happens, for example, when a financial institution requires one letter per folio when they process title policies and loan documents. Although each letter may contain the same exact request and response, under Appendix A of the fee schedule, a fee per folio number is still required.
There have been occasions in the past where requests for zoning letters involve unified development sites that contain multiple folio numbers, and a letter is needed for each folio. If the folio numbers within a single site have not been consolidated into one folio at the time of the request, multiple fees are charged, per folio number, even though the information contained in the letter is identical.
One option to address duplicate fees for each folio would be to charge $264 per unified development site, rather than per folio, provided the folios have common zoning designations and the information being requested is identical per folio. This could be effectuated by amending Appendix A (Fee Schedule) by Ordinance.