Dennis J. Cantwell

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I have been the chairman of the Lee County Building Industry Oversight Committee (BIOC) for more than 10 years. This committee’s role is to make sure that the money collected from building fees is used only for the Building Department in accordance with state law.

I would like to make it clear that the taxpayers of Lee County and/or the city of Bonita Springs have not spent one penny of taxes to run the Building Department. The Building Department has been 100 percent paid for by the permit fees from anyone who gets a building permit.

In its simplest form, the county’s Community Development Department is made up of two activities. One is the Building Department and the other is planning and zoning.

The Building Department’s building plan review and building inspections were paid 100 percent from permit fees. Over the last 10 years the county collected more than $15 million, more than it costs to run the Building Department.

Our committee, made up of builders, agreed to allow for the surplus because we knew there would be a time when things would slow down and we wanted to be prepared for the time when permit fees collected were lower than the cost to run the department.

Planning and zoning is funded differently. Planning and Zoning’s function is to plan how the city will look and what can be built in certain areas and activities related to this. The money to run this department comes form two sources. One is the fee developers pay when they want to make a change in the current zoning of a piece of land, and the rest is paid out of the general fund to plan for the city’s land use.

The city reimbursed Lee County its cost to do planning and zoning work from the general fund. The general fund should pay for part of planning and zoning, just like the general fund pays for other city functions.

Here is the problem the building industry has with the contract the city has with CH2M Hill. CH2M has made the case that Lee County charges less for its permits than anywhere else in the state and therefore had not been charging enough, even though the county has a $15 million surplus. CH2M’s deal with the city amounts to this: “You can pay us less than you have been paying Lee County for planning and zoning, and on top of that the city can keep whatever fees it collects from the developers which was kept by Lee County in the past.” So the amount that will come out of the general fund will be less than what was paid to Lee County.

But for the Building Department, which is funded by permit fees, CH2M wants to charge more than its cost. This would have the building fees subsidizing the planning and zoning function, which is against state law.

It has been said that CH2M wants to charge as much as quadruple what Lee County was charging. But in fact, CH2M’s proposed fee would be 10 times the amount charged by Lee County.

And before you shrug your shoulders and say, “So what, the builders, and not me, will have to pay,” remember the citizens of Bonita Springs need permits to build fences, driveways, new roofs, small additions and a lot of other things. And if you hire a builder to do your improvements, I can guarantee you that the cost of the permits is included in the contract.

So it is important that the citizens of Bonita Springs make sure that they are not paying more than what it costs.

CH2M says it needs $910,000 to run the Building Department, but the firm has not substantiated the costs. State law states that building permit fees can be lower but not higher than the cost to run the Building Department.

Based on the city of Bonita Springs’ budget, a department the size of CH2M’s building department would cost the city about $450,000.

So is this another sweetheart deal that CH2M Hill made? Let me be clear: I do not believe that anyone in city government got paid off or anything like that. The sweetheart deal was something like this: “We will do the work that comes out of the general fund at a loss if the city will let us charge more than our cost for building inspections.”

It appears the only problem is that CH2M did not understand Florida state laws.

There are two fixes to this mess. One, CH2M will have to disclose its costs for the Building Department and not charge any more than that amount. In order for CH2M to cover its overall cost, it will need to charge the city more for the planning and zoning. This will mean that the taxpayers in Bonita Springs will be paying more to CH2M than they did with Lee County.

The second thing CH2M could do is negotiate with Lee County to do the Building Department function at no cost to the city. From the building industry’s point of view, it is much more efficient through economy of scale to let Lee County do building inspections rather than to have the small governments set up their own building departments. It has worked well for years and it has not cost the taxpayers any money.

Planning and zoning work can be different in the county versus the city, so let CH2M or have city employees do the planning and zoning function

A side point I would like to make: As a builder, I have had the opportunity to apply for permits from the city of Bonita Springs through CH2M Hill. They have been extremely easy to work with, very professional and very good people. So my comments have nothing to do with CH2M as a company or the industry’s desire not to use them.

Builders are the same as everyone else — we want to get the best deal we can; it is a matter of getting the best value for the dollar.

CH2M wants to make a profit and it should; we just want to pay our fair share and not one penny more.

The industry also wants to make sure that the cost is the most efficient way to run a building department, and we do not think CH2M is the best way.

Dennis J. Cantwell is president and owner of Sand Springs Development Corp. He served as president of the Lee Building Industry Association and chairman of Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce.