When your fee schedule locks in
Fees go up between the day you plan a project and the day you pull permits. In some states the earlier date is the one that counts.
The Texas invention
Texas pioneered the idea that fees are assessed at platting and locked in from then on. Under the Texas act, the schedule in effect at final subdivision approval is the maximum that may be charged to development within that subdivision, regardless of when construction actually happens.
No time limit. That is the strongest vesting rule in the country and it changes how a Texas project should be sequenced.
The states with fixed windows
Four other states lock the schedule in effect at platting for a defined period. New Mexico runs four years, Indiana three, Arizona two, and Georgia one hundred eighty days.
Arizona's version is specific: a new or increased fee may not be assessed for twenty-four months after final approval of a commercial, industrial or multifamily development, or after the first building permit under an approved plat for residential, provided the number of service units does not increase. If it does increase, the new fee applies only to the additional units.
Phase-in periods are a second kind of lock
Six acts require a waiting period between adopting a fee and imposing it. Arizona requires seventy-five days, Utah ninety, Arizona counties ninety, and California sixty. Florida requires ninety days' notice before an ordinance takes effect.
Florida goes further than anyone on the size of increases: since 2021, an increase under twenty-five percent must be phased over two years, an increase of twenty-five to fifty percent over four years, no increase may exceed fifty percent across four years, and fees may generally be raised only once every four years.
The practical move
Two questions answer this for any project. When did my plat or site plan receive final approval, and what schedule was in effect that day? Then: has the jurisdiction noticed an increase, and when does it take effect?
In a state with a lock-in, pulling the permit before an increase lands is worth real money. In a state without one, the notice window is the only leverage there is.