After years of hoping to spur economic growth by tinkering with developer fees, Clark County has assembled a task force that will take a top-to-bottom look at the permitting process and suggest possibly extensive changes aimed at encouraging or directing development.
At a work session on Wednesday, the county council and staff discussed the scope of the eight-member panel of individuals drawn from the business community that will begin its work later this month with the goal of producing a set of recommendations later this year.
“I would suggest that the council has a lot of flexibility,” said Chris Horne, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecutor, who encouraged councilors to direct the task force to look at innovative ways of boosting and targeting growth. “I would offer that I think it’s a good opportunity to think more broadly that this can go anywhere you want it to.”
During the session, Community Development Director Marty Snell provided an overview of recent county efforts to revise or waive fees. In October 2010, the then county commission created a program relaxing building permit fees for vacant storefronts and shell buildings as well as for industrial, mixed-use and rural commercial developments. In 2012, the commission passed more targeted resolutions that waived fees for projects that created full-time jobs.
