HEDDY SOROUR

A public meeting regarding proposed changes to the town’s building permit fees for 2025 was convened yesterday. No residents or builders showed up at Town Hall although it’s possible that interested parties were watching the live feed of the meeting.

Building Permit fees have been frozen in Carleton Place since 2021. Normally these fees would have increased every year, but according to Lennox Smith, Chief Building Official it didn’t seem a good idea to raise fees in the face of the economic downturn following the pandemic.

“So due to the fact that we had a reserve that was ample we decided not to raise the fees for those three years,” Lennox told the committee.

Come 2025 however building permit fees are edging up slightly but the main thrust of the changes is to simplify the fee structure across the board.

The proposed increases are small, for example the minimum building permit fee is inching up by $3 from $127 to $130. For a large build the building permit fee will edge up from 2.54 percent to 2.6 percent on the first $500,000 of construction value, and round up from 1.27 percent to 1.3 percent on construction value after the first $500,000. The finished basement fee is now a flat $250 fee, and accessory buildings such as decks and sheds floating on grade will be charged a flat $160 fee.

“Part of this is also streamlining these fees and making it easier on folks like me and making it less confusing,” said Mayor Toby Randell.