Dramatic Fee Hikes in El Cerrito: A Breakdown

Fact Box: What Changed and by How Much

Category	Fee (Old → New)	% Increase
Single-Family Home Design Review	$959 → $2,320	+142%
Typical Planning Project (Combined Fees)	$3,198 → $5,939	+86%
ADU Permit	$367 → $950	+159%
Tree Planting (DIY Permit)	$59 → $533	+803%
City Vegetation Removal	$75 → $775	+933%
Street Tree (City-Planted)	$354 → $1,306	+269%
Code Enforcement Citation	$21 → $183	+790%
New General Plan Update Fee	2.4% on all building permits	—
Estimated Added Revenue	$630,000 – $885,000 per year	—
Hourly Rates Used in Fee Calculations	City Manager $244.77/hr, Police Chief $373.67/hr, Fire Chief $344.53/hr, CDD $309.47/hr	—

While the city’s attention (and ours) may have been focused on the library ballot measure, something else happened quietly but far more broadly: the City of El Cerrito Council approved a substantial set of fee increases—some rising by hundreds of percent—that will affect every homeowner, every housing project, and anyone who works on property here.

At last Tuesday’s council meeting, the public testimony included a concerned citizen who asked hard questions. In fact, another resident asked Claude AI to dig into the new Master Fee Schedule (effective July 1, 2025). Since the city did not provide a convenient comparison of the old vs. new line items, the citizen used AI to extract the changes. Below are the results. We have no expertise in the city’s fee structure and are just sharing what Claude wrote. Please point out any errors or omissions.

What Claude found

Housing costs exploded

• Single-family home design review: +142% (from $959 → $2,320)
• Combined planning fees for a typical project: +86% (from $3,198 → $5,939)
• ADU permits: +159% (from $367 → $950)
• New 2.4% General Plan Update Fee on all building permits

Tree fees are insane

• Planting a tree yourself: +803% (from $59 → $533 just for the license)
• City vegetation removal: +933% (from $75 → $775)
• City planting a street tree: +269% (from $354 → $1,306)

Senior city manager costs (full overhead included)

• Police Chief: $373.67 /hour
• Fire Chief: $344.53 /hour
• Community Development Director: $309.47 /hour
• City Manager: $244.77 /hour

These fully-burdened rates (salary plus 23–51% overhead) are now used to calculate all permit fees.

Code enforcement citation fee: +790% (from $21 → $183)

Estimated total revenue increase: $630,000 – $885,000 per year

The city claims this is simply a cost recovery measure. Still, there are serious concerns: the methodology is opaque, the timing is terrible (during a housing affordability crisis), and we don’t know if Council members fully understood what they were voting for but they should ask tough questions.

This affects everyone — homeowners, renters (developers will pass along costs), and anyone who cares about housing and trees in El Cerrito.

References used

• FY 2025-26 Fee Schedule: elcerrito.gov
• FY 2024-25 Fee Schedule: el-cerrito.org

Important caveats & questions

Before we jump to conclusions, here are areas we should check or clarify:
Verification of line items:
While Claude pulled numbers, we suggest verifying each line item manually by looking up the exact fee tables in the two PDFs (FY 24-25 and FY 25-26) to ensure the starting and ending numbers are correct. The city’s website confirms that the new schedule is effective as of July 1, 2025.
Exact percentage increases:
Some of the very high percentages (e.g., +803%, +933%, +790%) may appear dramatic and could depend on small base amounts, where a modest absolute increase becomes a significant percentage. We should make sure the base and new amounts are in the same category and correctly matched.
New fees vs. existing fees:
The “new 2.4% General Plan Update Fee” on all building permits is a strong claim. We haven’t yet located a quick verification in the schedule summary that explicitly states “2.4% fee on all permits.” That may require digging deeper into the fee schedule or meeting minutes.
Use of fully-burdened hourly rates:
The rates cited for chiefs and the city manager seem to reflect “fully burdened” cost allocations used in the schedule. But it would be important to confirm that these exact hourly rates are indeed published in the fee schedule and applied as described (i.e., across all permit calculations).
Total revenue estimate:
The estimated increase of $630k–$885k per year is presumably derived from multiplying fee increases by projected volume. We haven’t found a cited official calculation from the city supporting that range. It seems to come from the citizen/AI analysis.
Housing crisis context:
Our framing that this comes “during a housing affordability crisis” is valid from a policy perspective, but if we want to bolster it we might link to regional housing cost data or city/county housing production shortfall numbers.
City process and timing:
The city website states that prior to July 1 each year, the Council considers and adopts the schedule of all fees as part of the annual budget process. If the schedule was adopted with little public discussion of the magnitude of increases, that’s worth highlighting—and we might check the agenda/bill for the Council meeting where this item was adopted (to see if it was on the consent calendar or if there was public comment).

Suggested calls to action

Encourage residents to review the fee schedule PDFs themselves.
Ask them to attend the next Council meeting and ask: “How did you calculate these fee increases? What is the expected revenue? How will these increases impact affordability and housing production?”

Suggest contacting Council members with questions or requests for the methodology behind cost recovery and fee increases.

Encourage sharing this information with friends and neighbors—because these changes will affect every property owner, renter, and resident.