City of Athens reduces building permit fees

Press release

The City of Athens reduced the building permit fees charged by the City, effective October 1, 2018.

“The current fees we have used were raised in 2017 when the City had to utilize a third-party inspection service.” said Interim Director of Development Services Ryan Adams. “Those fees were set to ensure we would cover the cost of that service. Since we now provide inspections in-house by a City of Athens employee, the Council felt the timing was right to review our fee structure”.

City staff reviewed the fees of similar cities in the region and found that Athens building permit fees were significantly higher than its peers. “For residential building projects and site plan services, our permit fee prices would be roughly 60% higher than the average of other similar cities. For commercial projects, the permit fees might be double that of other cities, “ Adams continued. “The new fee structure keeps us very close to the average of our peer cities.”

The fee structure adopted by the City Council includes a residential category and a commercial category. The City hopes the reduction in building permit fees results in more work being permitted and inspected. “Our desire is to be development friendly, but even more we want to ensure that safe, high-quality construction occurs within the city,” said Adams.

Other fees being changed:

Reduction of single trade permit fees to $20.
Reduction of fence permit fees to $25.
Setting all contractor registration fees at $50.

For questions about the new permit fees, please contact the Development Services Department at 903-677-6615 or [email protected].