Dewey Beach Town Council is considering a change that would make maintenance projects more accessible to property owners.
Currently, any project a landowner wants to make on their property costing more than $1,000 dollars requires a permit from the Town Council, which includes a fee.
The proposed change would remove the need to notify the town for anything less than $1,000 dollars and remove the fee for anything less than $10,000. Improvements to properties in flood zones require a permit regardless of cost.
Mayor Bill Stevens says the change is meant to remove the strenuous process for those making small maintenance or improvement projects
The motion was tabled last week despite a general approval from the council. Assistant Town Manager Jim Dedes says that’s partially due to questions about enforcement.
“It’s basically a trust issue between us and the community, which is fine, most people are very reasonable and we’re okay with that. The bigger issue is in our flood zone, because it does require permits” he told DPM.
Dedes says town management cannot visually confirm the cost of a project without prior notification. That makes verbal confirmation their main method of enforcement, creating a challenge for ensuring compliance.
Many, including most of the town council members, agreed $1,000 dollars was too low a threshold, and are now considering removing permitting fees for projects under $10,000.
Town revenue will suffer losses because of the change, but some argue those losses are small enough to ignore, including Dedes.
“The permit fee, really, is 3% on permits. So, it’s not going to damage income coming into the town from what we can tell.” he said.
During November's Town Council Meeting, Mayor Stevens said the estimated losses for the town was around $20,000, noting "I don't think $20,000 is going to kill us from a budgetary perspective."
Individuals will still need to notify the city of their projects and expected costs for anything over $1,000 dollars; they just won't need to pay a fee unless it's over $10,000.
Dewey Town Council will consider the issue again during its Dec. 19th meeting.
