What Hermosa Beach's 2026 fee increases mean — the first citywide update since 2016

June 2026 · Last updated: June 10, 2026

Hermosa Beach approved its first citywide fee update in nearly a decade on April 28, 2026 — a 4-1 vote, phased in over two years, designed to close roughly $1 million a year in General Fund subsidy hidden in under-priced permits, per Easy Reader. After pushback from business owners, nearly 20 of the most contested line items were pulled for a revised look at the May 12 meeting.

If you pull a permit, run a business, or just pay taxes in Hermosa, here is what changed and why.

What did the council actually approve?

A correction to nine years of frozen prices. The city last updated its fee schedule in 2016, and the gap between what permits cost applicants and what they cost the city to process had widened into a subsidy: Community Development recovers only about 63 percent of its costs through fees, leaving a $1 million annual General Fund subsidy, while Public Works recovers about 78 percent, Administrative Services Director Brandon Walker told the council, per Easy Reader. Full implementation would generate roughly $1 million in added annual revenue.

The vote was 4-1, Councilmember Rob Saemann dissenting, with the increases phased in over two years toward full cost recovery rather than landing all at once.

Which fees go up the most?

Per the staff figures reported by Easy Reader:

Conditional use permit (commercial): $6,065 → $12,800 — a 111% increase
Administrative use permit: $621 → $2,100 — a 238% increase
Variance: $4,674 → $9,985 — nearly double
New: a $570 annual monitoring charge for businesses operating under a conditional use permit

The CUP items drew the sharpest fire — including from the dais. Councilmember Michael Keegan, who ran a Manhattan Beach business for 34 years, said he'd "be sure ticked off if I had to pay $500 a year" to hold a CUP that had never drawn a complaint.

Will you actually feel this as a resident?

Mostly if you build or remodel. The headline increases hit planning entitlements — the variance and administrative use permit fees apply when a project needs relief from zoning standards, the kind of approvals that come up in residential remodels and additions. If you never touch the permit counter, the fee update doesn't bill you directly; the argument for it is the reverse — that under-priced permits were being subsidized by roughly $1 million a year of general taxpayer money. "We are spending over a million dollars right now of taxpayer-subsidized dollars for these fees," Councilmember Ray Jackson said, per Easy Reader. The city posts its current citywide fee schedule online.

Business owners are the group that feels it most, and they said so: residents and owners warned the council that doubling the commercial CUP fee could "scare away" businesses, and that raising fees without fixing slow internal processes passes the cost of delays onto applicants.

Why now?

Hermosa's broader budget picture. As city staff told commissioners in the pier debate the following week, Hermosa needs $8–12 million a year for basic citywide infrastructure repair but is replenishing its General Funds at $4–6 million, with "no consistent structural General Fund support for capital projects," per Easy Reader's pier report. Against that backdrop, Walker framed the fee update as ending "hidden subsidies," while acknowledging the sticker shock: "I think when you wait nine years as we have, the amount of cost increases are a shock," he said, per Easy Reader.

What's still unresolved?

Nearly 20 of the touchiest line items — including the commercial CUP application fee, the new annual monitoring fee, the administrative use permit, the mural review fee, and the cost of appealing to City Council — were pulled at the April 28 meeting for further staff analysis and a revised report at the May 12 meeting, per Easy Reader. The approved portion phases in starting with the new fiscal year. To follow the pulled items: agendas and eComment are on the city's agenda portal, and the city posts plain-English recaps of each council meeting on its meeting recap page.

We track this story, and everything else that hits your money in MB and Hermosa, in the twice-weekly Pier to Pier newsletter.

General information, not advice.

Sources

Easy Reader, "City approves fee increases, holds some fee items after business community pushback," April 30, 2026 — https://easyreadernews.com/city-approves-fee-increases-holds-some-fee-items-after-business-community-pushback/
City of Hermosa Beach, Citywide Fee Schedule — https://www.hermosabeach.gov/doing-business/citywide-fee-schedule
City of Hermosa Beach, City Council Meeting Recap — https://www.hermosabeach.gov/our-government/city-council/city-council-meeting-recap
City of Hermosa Beach, agenda portal — https://pub-hermosabeach.escribemeetings.com/
Easy Reader, "Clock ticking on Hermosa Beach pier's future," May 7, 2026 — https://easyreadernews.com/clock-ticking-on-hermosa-beach-piers-future/