Fulshear businesses will see lower food permitting fees following resident complaints about high rates.

What residents need to know

At a Dec. 3 meeting, Fulshear City Council approved a new master fee schedule for environmental health permits, including brick-and-mortar businesses, food vendors and childcare facilities.

The permit cost covers the city’s inspection fee and ensures businesses who are serving food are doing so with the correct licensing and following procedures, Fulshear Planning Director Josh Brothers said.

Breaking it down


Brothers said the new fees reduce costs for permitting based on the cost to the city and a comparison of four area cities: Pearland, Rosenberg, Sugar Land and Williamson.

“I am happy to say that by looking at the four cities we investigated and looking at our cost, we were able to lower the fees significantly across the board, as well stay in line with some of those other cities,” he said.
Additionally, council approved removing several permits that were never filed, including retail frozen dessert manufacturing, temporary food establishment and frozen dessert excess sample permits, Brothers said.

What else?

Meanwhile, childcare facilities will now have a specific annual inspection permit instead of being charged as a typical brick-and-mortar establishment, which typically costs an average of $725, Brothers said.


The new fees include:
  • $320 for facilities with kitchen
  • $120 for facilities without a kitchen
The city also added a $120 annual permit for farmer’s market and city event food vendors, who aren’t covered under cottage law, which allows the sale of food made in residential homes that don’t need temperature control, Brothers said. Previously, the vendors were charged as a temporary vendor, which has a $40 base with $25 per operational day.

Another note

In addition to food-related permits, council also approved adding inspections for multifamily dwellings after hearing a spike of resident complaints about unit conditions, Brothers said.

The new fees include a biannual premise inspection fee and a unit inspection fee each time a new tenant is moving in, according to agenda documents. The fees are $250 and $75, respectively, to be covered by the property management company.