Austin Development Review Fees to Skyrocket

Developers in Austin’s Travis County have less than two months to lock in their projects before a drastic increase in permit review fees hits.

Fees in the Austin area will rise by 141 percent starting Sept. 1, impacting everyone from homeowners renovating properties to large commercial developers, Urbanize Austin reported.

Budget constraints have prevented the county from hiring enough engineers and remaining competitive with the private sector, the outlet reported. A Texas law took effect last year requiring municipalities to hand down decisions on permit applications within two weeks. If not, developers can take their applications to another municipality, or any licensed engineer in Texas, for approval.

Travis County Department of Development Services has had to outsource permitting to keep up with demand, which has been expensive, although the exact costs weren’t reported. The fee increase aims to recover about 85 percent of those costs.

Travis County Commissioners approved the fee increase this month as part of a broader effort to streamline the city’s permitting process and enhance transparency. The fees haven’t been increased since 2016, and the department plans to reassess its fee schedule annually going forward.

The department’s website will be updated by early next year with a section for project-specific information and a guided checklist for plan submissions. It will also include a dashboard where customers can track application status, review times and processing queues.

“I know that it has been a difficult and rocky road, but I think that what has been produced will ultimately not only benefit internal staff but will benefit our constituents as well,” County Commissioner Jeff Travillion said. “It’s good to have a database or a foundation of information that clearly tells [customers] what they can expect and clearly tells them how they can access the information.”

Austin is not the only Texas metro to overhaul its permitting process in recent years. Dallas and Houston have also made significant changes to their building permit processes as part of an effort to streamline reviews, simplify submittals, recover costs and enhance the customer experience for developers.

— Andrew Terrell