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a <br />• Once a matter has reached the Council or Planning Commission agenda, <br />however, formal action by the Council would appear desireable. Formal <br />receipt of a written request for withdrawal and formal .action guarantees <br />that the status of the application is a matter of public record. In <br />. order to protect the legal interests of the City such written request <br />should contain not only the request but also a statement by the <br />.applicant that he/she understands .that the acceptance of the withdrawal <br />in no way constitutes a denial of the application by the Council. <br />There certainly may be applicants who wish to withdraw but refuse to <br />put such request in writing. It would appear that the only possible <br />way to handle these circumstances is to proceed as if no request for <br />withdrawal had been made. To take any other action may promote a <br />future dispute as to what in fact occurred. While this would defeat <br />part of the purpose of the policy, it would seem essential. The <br />written request for withdrawal would be promoted in such circumstances <br />if no fee could be refunded unless such letter was received. <br />Fee Refundment <br />The refundment of fees is a much more difficult -subject to address. <br />Applications are submitted for a wide variety of permits or licenses, <br />such as: <br />Building Permits <br />Special Use Permits <br />Variances <br />Rezonings <br />PRDs <br />Contractor's Licenses <br />Municipal Licenses <br />Plats <br />Minor Subdivisions <br />In some cases the fee is to offset the cost of processing. In other <br />cases the fee is for ongoing monitoring. =Within a specific category <br />such as municipal licenses one license may be processing intensive and <br />another enforcement intensive. To write a general policy applicable to <br />all applications would appear difficult if not impossible. Another <br />option would be to leave refundment to the discretion of the Council. <br />This, however, may increase the workload of the withdrawal process by <br />requiring a detailed examination of costs incurred for each application <br />withdrawal. <br />A superior option would seem to be the establishment of an application <br />fee and enforcement or permit fee for each kind of application.' <br />Application fees would not be refundable, permit fees would be. This <br />option, however, would force a detailed examination of the entire fee <br />