Jackson Town Council members voted unanimously on Aug. 17 to overhaul how the town calculates building fees, shifting from a system based on square footage to one based on a project’s dollar valuation. The change isn’t final—councilors still need to formally adopt it—but the proposed calculations point toward meaningfully higher costs for many projects within town limits, including custom homes.
Currently, a $2 million single-family home measuring approximately 4,944 square feet generates a $7,200 building fee. Under the valuation-based formula, that same project’s fee would climb to $18,667—a 159% increase. For comparison, a $40 million, 110,755-square-foot hotel project would see its fee rise 89%, from $81,395 to $153,579. Notably, the percentage increase is steeper in the residential example than in the commercial example, even though the stated goal is fairness and improved cost recovery.
Town staff say the switch would improve cost recovery and is consistent with how similar communities calculate building fees. Senior Planner Tyler Valentine also noted that fees could decrease if the market slows. Over the past decade, fees have covered approximately 62% of the departments’ costs, although that figure is expected to decline to between 50% and 60% in the future. On a 4-1 vote, councilors separately supported a cost-recovery target of 60% to 75% for the town’s planning and building departments.
The lone dissenting vote came from Councilor Jonathan Schechter. His objection was not to the valuation-based system itself, which he supported, but to moving forward without first studying whether fees could be lowered for people building primary homes while being increased for developers constructing large commercial projects.
For anyone considering new construction in the Town of Jackson, the proposed change is worth monitoring as it moves toward formal approval. Property owners should ask the town, their contractor, or their architect how the two formulas could affect their project and whether applications submitted before the change takes effect would be evaluated under the current fee structure.
