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47 <br /> Fee Study —Review Inspections <br /> Staff Recommendations <br /> Demand in FY 2025 was low, but management held positions vacant to reduce expenditures. Department <br /> expressed strain to personnel to meet all deadlines. <br /> • Going forward, department will need to set a target recovery level based on the expectation of a <br /> historically average year of demand and set staffing levels sufficient to meet state deadlines. <br /> • Budget Office conducting peer review of budgeted recovery levels of peer departments, first review <br /> shows department's FY 26 budgeted recovery was within peer standards but need to do deeper review to <br /> ensure apples-to-apples comparison. Some larger peers, Buncombe and Durham City/County have <br /> achieved 100% cost recovery or greater. Town of Chapel Hill has the worst recovery rate. <br /> • Planning office staff have identified that the schedule is overly complicated for users to navigate and will <br /> propose a new fee framework for the board to approve at a future board meeting. <br /> • Staff recommends increasing fees for large residential, commercial, and non-essential features (i.e. <br /> pools) but continue to subsidize small residential to maintain county strategic priorities. <br /> • Request Board input on weighing different factors, Manager will set policy recovery target in Budget <br /> based on board deliberation. <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> 13 NORTH CAROLINA <br />