Dearborn Puts $1,000-a-Month Bite on Languishing Contractors

Weary of pokey builders, the Dearborn City Council is offering incentives for developers to finish their projects: a $1,000 fee for each month the project is extended beyond 12 months.

The council recently voted, 4-1, to extend the fee to $1,000 from $25 for each month the project is extended, the Detroit Free Press reports. The $1,000 fee could be waived in some extenuating circumstances, but is necessary to maintain the aesthetic value of neighborhoods, officials said.

“Neighborhoods have been negatively impacted for a stretch of time that far surpasses construction timelines,” City Councilman Robert Abraham said at a council meeting last month when the fees were increased. “This ordinance is simply to rein in that timeline and hold the property owners and the contractors accountable to a reasonable timeline.”

In a city newsletter, Dearborn officials said home construction “languishing past the initial permit period ... can cause a significant impact on surrounding properties and the city.”

Detractors, including Lee Schwartz, executive vice president for government relations with the Home Builders Association of Michigan, think the hefty fees are unreasonable and violate state law.

“Building department fees are limited to recovering the costs of running the department,” Schwartz said. “They can’t be used to raise money. ... They can’t be used in a punitive manner.”

The city of Troy is currently defending a 2010 lawsuit filed by the Home Builders and two other building groups, who claim the fees charged by that city are similarly excessive.

In both cities, officials are “using that money to fund other areas of city government,” Schwartz said. “It’s become a real problem.”

The city said the increased costs will help pay for monitoring, code enforcement, inspections and city staff time to deal with the extensions.

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