Grand Coulee won't return permit fee

By a narrow 3-2 vote, the Grand Coulee City Council refused to pay back a building permit fee to Mike Horne, who wanted to move his automotive business to a new location earlier this winter.

The permit fee of $650.06 was only a small portion of what it cost Horne told the city council last Tuesday night. Horne said he had taken out a loan and had attorney fees of his own, in the amount of about $5,000.

In an earlier discussion, the council decided not to reimburse Horne for the permit fee, and last Tuesday night he appeared before the council to ask for it back.

The council learned that the city had paid its attorney $1,500 for advice in the case. Of the permit fee, $516.45 of it went to its building department inspector, and $4.50 went to Grant County for a fee it charges, leaving the city with about $159.

Horne had applied for a building permit last fall, which the city had granted, and had plans to move into a vacant building between Pepper Jack’s Bar & Grille and the Starkey Professional Building. The vacant building is owned by Larry Maier.

Horne had planned to put in service bays in the new location and move his automotive and boat repair business there from its present location only a few hundred feet away.

That brought other business owners out in force to protest the plan.

The plan also ran into problems with the city’s zoning document, which got the planning commission into the picture, and after lengthy hearings the commission decided to do nothing and let the zoning status stand.

Last Tuesday night it appeared that there was sentiment on the council to return the permit fee to Horne, but not quite enough.

Councilmember Erin Neilson stated that perhaps it was worth the city being educated on the matter to return the fee. Councilmember Paul Townsend agreed, but the other three council members voted against returning the fee.