The City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) accepted public comment on proposed administrative rules governing refunds of fees paid for BES work associated with sewer connection and repair permits from Monday, March 5, 2018 through Friday, April 6, 2018. The comment period is closed.

Portland City Code (PCC) section 17.32.100 E acknowledges that certain situations may warrant refunds of permit fees and requires BES to adopt administrative rules that establish criteria for issuing refunds of sewer connection and repair permit fees. Temporary rules adopted in July 2014 lay out these criteria and associated requirements, and the present rulemaking proposes permanent rules to replace the temporary ones. BES proposes no significant substantive changes compared to the temporary rules and instead aims to provide the public with greater clarity of refund criteria and requirements. The proposed rules also support efficient use of ratepayer dollars.

As proposed, the rules authorize BES to refund up to 80% of fees paid for a permit for a new connection or repair if any one of several specified conditions exist. In addition, the proposed rules contain provisions related to administrative review processes and timelines that will facilitate consistency with other BES rules. Finally, the proposed rules set the requirements for submitting a permit fee refund request to BES.

The proposed rules and a fact sheet with more details are available for download below. Please send questions to Rachele Altman at rachele.altman@portlandoregon.gov or call 503-823-7767.