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Remodeling your condo?

Put an extra $100 aside for a fire inspection, and maybe keep $25 extra handy in case you need a building inspector to come out more than once.

In Naples, the cost of getting a city permit to build, or renovate a home, is rising for the first time in seven years.

Naples City Council initially approved the building permit fees Wednesday. Those increases will go into effect about a month after the second, and final, approval.

The city last adjusted its building permit fees in September 2001, Naples building official Paul Bollenback said. Fees are reviewed annually, but are adjusted only when needed to meet expenses, Bollenback said in an e-mail.

“The modest fee increase will allow the department to cover the expenses of operating the department,” Bollenback said. “It will cover the cost of salaries, fuel (and) vehicles.”

The primary revenue source for the building department is construction and inspection fees. These fees are charged for all buildings and structures that are either being built or altered.

According to this year’s budget, the building department expected to see about $3 million in revenue this year. Of that estimated $3 million, about $1.6 million is expected to come from building permits, according to the budget.

The increases are expected to “keep (the department) sufficiently funded for the next few years,” Bollenback said during an April 14 workshop regarding the fee structure.

Bollenback said the increase could result in a net increase of about $125,000 a year.

Notable changes, Bollenback said, include the $100 fire inspection fee for mult-family and commercial buildings. This fee would be applied to anyone seeking to remodel their condo, he said.

The fire inspection fee is increasing $50 and will address a departmental deficiency, Bollenback said during the April 14 meeting.

“Every time they remodel, we issue them a fire inspection even though they haven’t applied for one,” he said. “Presently it’s being done at no charge, (and we) feel the need to cover (some expenses).

Those expenses also could be covered through a new partial inspection the department will institute. That fee, Bollenback said, is meant to offset the cost of going back and forth for multiple inspections, something that happens often with larger or unique homes.

This partial inspection fee, which comes into play for the second and subsequent inspections, falls into line with what Collier County’s building department does.

According to the fee schedule on its Web site, the county also charges $25 for more than one partial inspection of single-family and multifamily homes.

The city’s new fee structure is on par with other coastal communities in Florida, Bollenback said.

Lee County, for instance, charges a minimum of $200 — or $0.15 per square foot — for a new construction permit. Naples plans to charge a minimum of $150 — or $0.50 per square foot — for a new construction permit.

Single-family construction is where the city of Naples is seeing its most activity, Bollenback said.

The city issued about 110 permits for single-family construction in 2007, compared to 77 permits in 2006 and 188 permits in 2005.

“The goal,” Bollenback said about the fee increase, “is to obviously provide adequate department income for the next few years.”