§8549 Cost Recovery Reform

Summary

The agency in charge may charge a reasonable extra fee on top of other fees for special recreation permits. The fee can cover the agency’s paperwork and work for processing an application, issuing the permit, and watching that permit to make sure the rules are followed. If fees are billed by the hour, the agency must set a small hourly cutoff so a certain number of hours are not charged, and only bill hours over that cutoff. If the agency handles several similar permit applications together, it should split the fee fairly among applicants and still give each applicant the hourly exemption. The agency must not charge these administrative fees for a programmatic environmental review, and should reuse existing studies when possible to lower costs.