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Development Due-Diligence Fee Checklist

This checklist walks a developer or underwriter through the fee-side of due diligence on a U.S. development site. Each item names the question to answer, where to look for the answer, and what counts as a confirmed source. The checklist supports legal, engineering, and entitlement review. It does not replace them.

Who This Checklist Is For

This checklist is written for real estate developers, acquisitions analysts, investors, and entitlement attorneys preparing fee-side due diligence on a U.S. development site during pre-LOI, pre-closing, or feasibility review. It assumes familiarity with the entitlement and permitting process and an underwriting model that already accounts for hard costs and soft costs separately. It is not written for consumers, first-time buyers, or contractors estimating a single permit.

Key Takeaways

  • Fee due diligence is a research workflow, not a single number lookup. Each fee category requires a separate verification step against a primary government source.
  • The applicable fee schedule for a project is determined by the trigger event (building permit, plat approval, certificate of occupancy) and the project's vesting status, not by the date of acquisition.
  • City, county, water and wastewater authority, MUD or PID, school district, and fire or EMS district may each levy fees on the same project. None of them defer to the others.
  • Negotiated developer agreements and Virginia-style proffers can override the published schedule for specific projects; due diligence must surface the relevant case-specific record before relying on a number.
  • A "confirmed" fee is a fee whose current schedule is published on the issuing authority's .gov site or in an adopted ordinance; aggregator pages, AI summaries, and stale third-party PDFs do not qualify.
  • Effective-date carve-outs, indexed-escalation provisions, and statutory update cycles can produce material fee variation between adjacent permit dates on the same parcel.
  • Document every source consulted with URL, accessed date, and document version. Fee due diligence is part of the deal record and should survive personnel turnover.

Identify the Jurisdictions Touching the Site

Before a single fee can be looked up, the practitioner needs to know which government entities have authority over the parcel. A development site rarely sits inside a single regulatory boundary; it is more typical to find five or six separate authorities, each with its own fee schedule and its own update cycle.

  • Primary jurisdiction. Either an incorporated city or unincorporated county. The county GIS layer and the parcel's title commitment together establish this. In Texas, the city ETJ map controls whether an unincorporated parcel is subject to city subdivision rules even though it is not inside city limits.
  • Overlapping water and wastewater authority. A separate water authority, a county utility, a special-purpose district, or a privately operated franchised provider may serve the parcel. The city limit boundary is not always the utility service boundary.
  • School district. The school district overlay matters where state law authorizes school impact fees or impact taxes, and matters for proffer policy in Virginia rezonings even where it does not directly assess a development fee.
  • Special districts. Municipal Utility District (MUD), Public Improvement District (PID), Water Control and Improvement District (WCID), Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), road district, drainage district, or sector-plan district. Each has its own enabling statute and fee mechanics.
  • Fire and EMS district. Some states authorize separate fire-protection or EMS taxing districts that levy connection or capacity charges on new development.
  • Other state-specific overlays. Virginia transportation improvement districts, California Mello-Roos districts, Florida community development districts, Colorado metropolitan districts, and similar mechanisms. These vary widely by state.

How to confirm: county GIS, city annexation history, certified survey, title commitment, MUD or PID disclosure (where required by state law), and a direct call to the relevant planning department for ambiguous cases.

Identify the Fee Categories That Apply

Once the jurisdictions are mapped, the practitioner enumerates which fee categories any of those jurisdictions may legally levy on this project type. ZoneFee's coverage scope tracks these recurring categories:

  • Impact fees — capital recovery for roadway, water, wastewater, drainage, parks, public safety, and (where authorized) school facilities. Authorized by state enabling statute. See the impact fees guide for the legal framework.
  • Zoning and land-use application fees — rezoning, special use permit, planned development, site plan, plat, variance, special exception. Set by local ordinance.
  • Utility tap and connection fees — water meter, sewer connection, electric service connection. Often labelled "capital recovery" in Texas and administered by a separate water or wastewater authority.
  • Proffers and conditional zoning contributions — Virginia primarily, under the conditional zoning framework. Analogous voluntary mechanisms exist in some other states under different names.
  • Special-district overlay fees — MUD or PID assessments, school surcharges, transportation improvement contributions, sector-plan facility fees.
  • Permit and inspection fees — building permit, electrical, plumbing, mechanical. Calculated on valuation, square footage, or fixture count. Not capital recovery and not impact fees, but part of the project's fee stack.

The list of categories that apply is the product of (a) what the state authorizes, and (b) what the relevant local jurisdiction has adopted. A category authorized by state statute that the local jurisdiction has not adopted is not a fee on this project.

Verify Each Category Against the Issuing Authority

The "issuing authority" is the entity that adopts and collects the fee, not necessarily the city or county the parcel sits in. Tap fees may sit on a separate water authority. School surcharges may sit on a separate school district or county school facility authority. Transportation impact fees may sit on a city department while water capital recovery sits on a regional utility. Verifying the wrong authority's schedule is the most common fee-research mistake.

For each authorized category, the practitioner locates the current schedule by:

  • Starting on the issuing authority's planning, development services, or rate-and-fees page on its .gov domain.
  • Locating the adopted ordinance or resolution that authorizes the fee, on the city or county code library (Municode, eCode360, American Legal, or the locality's own legal-archive site).
  • Locating the current fee schedule, often a separate PDF, exhibit, or appendix to the ordinance.
  • For utility authorities, locating the rate sheet or schedule of charges in effect.

What to capture for each fee: the ordinance or resolution number, the effective date, the per-service-unit fee amount, the collection rate where the schedule distinguishes maximum-assessable from collected, the indexed-escalation provision if any, and the trigger event that locks in the fee.

Identify Vested Rights, Carve-Outs, and Phased-Project Exposure

Even when the published per-unit fee is clear, the binding fee for a specific project depends on timing and procedural facts that frequently surprise underwriters:

  • Vested rights. Rules vary by state. In Texas, Local Government Code Chapter 245 governs the application of regulations in effect at the time of a project's first permit or filing. Virginia rules combine common-law vesting principles with statutory carve-outs. Maryland vesting is governed by local ordinance and case law and varies materially by county.
  • Pre-platted-tract carve-outs. A previously platted tract may be locked in at the prior fee schedule even after a new schedule is adopted. Local ordinances differ in how strictly they apply pre-platted vesting.
  • Indexed-escalation provisions. Some schedules include annual CPI or construction-cost-index escalation that bumps the per-unit charge each year without a new ordinance. The number on the website today may not be the number assessed at permit.
  • Phased projects. Multi-phase developments may straddle multiple schedule versions. The fee assessed at each phase typically follows the schedule in effect at the trigger event for that phase, not the original master plan filing.
  • Re-platting events. A re-plat of a previously platted tract may re-trigger fee assessment under the current schedule even when the original plat was vested. Local ordinances vary in how they treat re-platting.
  • Statutory update cycles. Texas Chapter 395 contemplates periodic Land Use Assumptions and Capital Improvements Plan refresh. A jurisdiction reaching the end of its update cycle is likely to adopt a new schedule; underwriting against the current published number without checking the cycle leaves the assumption exposed.

The Fee Due-Diligence Checklist

For a specific jurisdiction and parcel, work through the following items. The checklist is structured to be reproducible across deals so that the same research record can be archived for each transaction.

  1. Confirm the parcel's primary jurisdiction (incorporated city or unincorporated county). Source: county GIS layer and title commitment.
  2. Confirm whether the parcel is in an extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) or annexation reserve. Source: city ETJ map or county annexation history.
  3. Identify the water service provider. Source: city or county utility department; water authority service-area map.
  4. Identify the wastewater service provider. Source: same as water; in many jurisdictions these are separate authorities.
  5. Identify the electric utility serving the parcel where electric connection fees may apply. Source: utility service map.
  6. Identify the school district. Source: county or state school-district map; relevant where school impact fees, surcharges, or proffer policy apply.
  7. Identify any overlapping special districts (MUD, PID, WCID, road district, drainage district, sector-plan district). Source: county tax records; MUD or PID disclosure document; special district registry where state law publishes one.
  8. Pull the city or county adopted impact fee ordinance. Source: jurisdiction's .gov site or its code library.
  9. Pull the current impact fee schedule for the applicable service area. Source: ordinance exhibit, fee schedule PDF, or department fee page.
  10. Pull the city or county zoning fee schedule covering rezonings, special use permits, plats, site plans, and variances applicable to the project type. Source: planning department fee schedule PDF.
  11. Pull the utility tap and connection fee schedule from each issuing authority (water, wastewater, electric where relevant). Source: each authority's rate sheet.
  12. Pull any school surcharge or impact tax schedule. Source: county or school district fee schedule.
  13. For Virginia parcels, pull the proffer history and policy for the relevant locality. Source: county zoning office, planning commission records, and case-specific proffer statements of record.
  14. Identify the trigger event for each fee (building permit issuance, plat approval, certificate of occupancy, or other). Trigger events drive both the fee assessed and the cash-flow timing.
  15. Confirm the collection rate for each impact fee category, where the schedule distinguishes maximum-assessable from collected. The maximum is a calculated ceiling; the collected amount is set by ordinance and may be lower.
  16. Note any indexed-escalation provision and the index method (CPI, ENR Construction Cost Index, or other).
  17. Identify any vested-rights claim that would put the project on a prior schedule. Source: prior plat, prior application filing, project-specific development agreement.
  18. Identify any pending fee-schedule amendment, study underway, or 5-year statutory update due in the near term. Source: council agendas, planning commission minutes, public notices.
  19. Document each source: agency name, document title, URL, document version or revision date, date accessed, and the specific page or section consulted.
  20. Cross-check the figures against the relevant ZoneFee jurisdiction master page (where coverage exists) or against the relevant .gov source directly (where ZoneFee coverage is not yet published). The ZoneFee page records its own last-reviewed date; verify the date is recent enough for the deal timeline.
  21. Confirm the binding fee with the issuing department in writing before relying on the figure for closing or capital decisions. A planning email or pre-permit fee estimate is the practical proof.
  22. Archive the research file with the deal record. Future personnel, refinance lenders, and any post-close audit will need to reproduce the underwriting basis.

Authority Sources

The statutes and statutory frameworks referenced in this checklist:

  • Texas Local Government Code Chapter 395 (Texas Impact Fees). Authorizes municipal and county impact fees for roadway, water, wastewater, drainage, and certain other categories.
  • Texas Local Government Code Chapter 245 (Vested Rights). Governs the application of regulations in effect at the time of a project's first permit or filing.
  • Virginia Code Section 15.2-2303 (Conditional Zoning / Proffers). Authorizes voluntary proffered conditions in Virginia rezoning applications. The principal mechanism Virginia uses in lieu of statutory impact fees for most localities.
  • Virginia Code Section 15.2-2317 (Article 8, Road Impact Fees - Applicability). Limits road-impact-fee authority to localities with adopted zoning that meet population and growth thresholds (population at least 20,000 with growth at least 5%, or growth of at least 15%).

Statutes named without a working .gov source URL are not cited here. If a statute moves or its URL changes, please report the broken link via the corrections page.

When This Checklist Breaks Down

The checklist is a starting point, not a binding rule. It does not apply, or applies differently, in several situations:

  • Federal lands, tribal jurisdictions, and other land where the city or county fee framework does not control.
  • Negotiated developer agreements outside the published fee schedule. A development agreement may set fee terms by contract that differ from any published schedule.
  • Projects subject to negotiated proffers (Virginia) or comparable case-by-case mechanisms in other states. The schedule is not the binding authority; the recorded proffer or condition document is.
  • Project types not covered by the routine schedule, such as highly specialized industrial uses with custom mitigation, ports, airports, or hospitals with bespoke utility commitments.
  • Cross-state generalizations. A rule that holds in Texas may not hold in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, California, Colorado, or Washington.
  • Fee-side only. Title, environmental, geotechnical, entitlement, and engineering due diligence are separate workflows that this checklist does not cover.

For any specific project, the binding fee is determined by the relevant jurisdiction's planning, engineering, or development services department applying the current ordinance to the application as filed. This checklist does not substitute for that determination and is not legal, financial, engineering, zoning, entitlement, or tax advice.

Sources

The primary statutory sources referenced in this checklist:

Applied examples reference published ZoneFee jurisdiction master and fee-type pages. Each of those pages cites its own primary sources. ZoneFee does not derive checklist content from third-party aggregators, paywalled databases, or AI-generated summaries.

Corrections

Found a checklist item that's wrong, missing, or out of date? See the corrections page or email contact@zonefee.com.

Disclaimer

This checklist is educational reference only. It is not legal, financial, engineering, zoning, entitlement, or tax advice and is not a substitute for licensed-professional review. The binding fee for a specific project is determined by the relevant jurisdiction's planning, engineering, or development services department applying the current ordinance to the application as filed. See the data use disclaimer for additional context.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-09