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A. To defray expenses incurred in connection with the processing of applications, preparation of reports, publication of notices, issuance of permits, review and maintenance of plans and records, appeals and other matters, the City shall collect filing and other fees as established by council resolution. The required fees shall be paid to the City on filing an application or at any other time specified by the resolution. Failure to submit the required fees with an application or a notice of appeal, including return of checks unpaid or other failure of consideration may preclude the processing of that application, and in the case of an appeal, preclude the processing thereof.

B. Fees are nonrefundable, except when the City has incurred no cost in the processing of a terminated or withdrawn application. Municipal corporations and other public agencies are exempt from the payment of application fees.

C. The council may reduce or waive required fees on a showing of just cause.

D. A person who begins work on a project requiring a permit under BC 9.05.005 through 9.05.170 without first securing a permit shall in addition to the permit fee for a permit issued under this ordinance pay as a penalty an amount equal to the permit fee (sometimes referred to as the “double permit fee” or “double permit penalty”), unless the city engineer determines either (1) that it was not reasonably possible to obtain a permit before commencing the work, or (2) the person who requires a street tree permit is the owner of adjacent property or agent of the owner and the property is used for a single-family residence, or (3) the council reduces the penalty on appeal after conducting a public hearing on the matter. Payment of the penalty shall not relieve or excuse a person from the forfeitures imposed for violation of BC 9.05.005 through 9.05.170 and/or conformance with code requirements. Payment of the penalty shall not foreclose any other enforcement provisions.

E. If the penalty is appealed, and after conducting a hearing the council rules in the appellant’s favor, the council may waive or reduce the penalty on a showing of just cause. In doing so, the council may base its decision on any of the following considerations:

1. The past conduct of the appellant when doing business in the City, including the appellant’s familiarity with City permit processes, the quality of similar work performed by the appellant in the past and the number of past violations by the appellant, if any.

2. The efforts of any person in charge of the site where the work was done to prevent the work from being started without a permit or to mitigate the adverse impacts of the work.

3. The actual results of any actions taken by any person in charge of the site to prevent the work from being done or mitigate the adverse impacts of the work.

4. The cost to the City of investigating and correcting or attempting to correct any adverse impacts of the violation, the cost to the City of processing the appellant’s penalty and appeal, including bringing an enforcement proceeding, and the cost to the City of processing the appeal.

5. The level of cooperation shown by the appellant when informed that the work was unpermitted and issued a stop work order by the City, including the appellant’s responsiveness, mitigation of any adverse impacts, willingness to follow the City’s procedures, and actual performance in doing so.

6. Any economic advantage(s) or relief from a penalty or penalties that the appellant enjoyed by performing the unpermitted work.

7. Any benefit(s) enjoyed by the public as a result of the appellant’s performing the unpermitted work, such as recycling of demolition materials or others.

8. The severity of the violation, including the type(s) and extent(s) of the unpermitted work and the resulting adverse impacts of the unpermitted work.

9. Other extenuating circumstances.

F. If the penalty is appealed, and the council rules in the appellant’s favor, the council may reduce the penalty amount to less than the “double permit fee” penalty by applying either of the following alternative remedies, individually or in combination:

1. Application of the remedies and fines for a Class 1 Civil Infraction pursuant to BC 9.05.160 through 9.05.165.

2. Reduction of the penalty amount to less than the “double permit fee” amount in consideration of the extenuating circumstances determined by the city council under subsection E of this section.

G. If the council decides to reduce the penalty, the council may set the penalty amount to correspond to the estimated cost of the component(s) of work begun without a permit.

1. The estimated cost of each component of work begun without a permit shall be provided by the applicant, shall be prepared by a registered professional civil engineer or architect licensed by the State of Oregon and shall be in a form satisfactory to the city engineer.

2. If an appellant has not yet provided the City an itemized cost estimate for all work requiring a permit issued under this ordinance at the time of the violation, the appellant shall be given 30 calendar days from the date of the City’s written notification of the violation to the appellant to provide an itemized cost estimate for all such work, in the quantities required to complete the project.

3. If the appellant fails to provide an acceptable cost estimate within the allotted time, the city engineer may prepare the cost estimate upon which the reduced penalty amount is to be based.

4. If the city engineer prepares the cost estimate used to establish the penalty amount, the City may increase the penalty amount to recover the cost of the staff time required to prepare the estimate. [Ordinance No. 3440, 4/2/85; amended by Ordinances No. 3487, 1/14/86, Ordinance No. 3979, 4/21/97, Ordinance No. 4249, 4/7/03]