Plan review fee

The plan review fee pays for the department's time reading your submittal. It is charged separately from the permit fee and is normally collected at application, before any review happens.

How it is set

Commonly a percentage of the permit fee, often in the range of a quarter to a half, or a separate schedule based on job value or project type. Some jurisdictions charge per discipline, so a project needing structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and energy review accumulates five charges.

Refundability

Usually none. The review fee pays for work the department performs whether or not the permit is ever issued, so withdrawing an application after review has started rarely recovers it.

Resubmittal charges

Many jurisdictions include the first two or three review cycles in the original fee and charge for each cycle beyond that. The charge is real but it is not the main cost of extra cycles: the schedule impact of another full review turnaround is almost always the larger number.

This is the practical argument for investing in the first submittal. A package that clears review in two cycles instead of five saves the resubmittal fees and, more importantly, weeks of calendar time.

Expedited review

Where offered, expedited review is a premium service with its own fee, often a large multiple of the standard one. It buys a faster place in the queue, not a more lenient review, and the comments come back just the same.