17 - DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND PERMITTING

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enforce requirements completely. Doing so now makes people think they are being treated unfairly, or that we have changed the rules. We had a recent complaint from a gentleman from whom we needed to acquire an easement for utility construction. He refused to work with us on the easement until we gave him a building permit for a business expansion. That might seem like a reasonable trade on the face of it, but he has still never applied for a building permit, and by law, one issue cannot have to do with the other. Another issue we have relates to owners and builders not utilizing professional guidance for maj or proj ects. Many j obs really need an architect or engineer, but owners choose to use other professionals who are less likely to know the relevant codes. In some instances this involves state law requirements like accessibility and licensing. This can be a cost saving tool for many owners, but they need to be cognizant of the difference between an engineer and a drafter, for example. This difference often leads applicants to expect city staff to provide more specific design assistance than we are set up to give. Finally, many code requirements come from the state, and we have no control over those. Further, if we locally decide not to enforce some such requirements thoroughly, the city and licensed staff members can be penalized. STATUS OF ISSUE: We recently replaced the contract building inspector with an in -house employee. Our previous contractor was very knowledgeable, but too nit -picky and apparently often abrupt. This change should increasingly improve working relationships, quality of service, and timeliness. As an example of the improvement after only a few weeks, Dr. Hashmi's contractors recently went out of their way to compliment our new inspector. In addition we will continue to encourage pre- meetings so applicants will better know what to expect, and we will do more proactive follow -up once the process begins. We are also developing new printed materials to help guide "amateur" builders, will provide opportunities to get feedback on service quality issues to identify and remedy problem areas, host some educational /feedback meetings, provide more data on web and social media, and improve and expand our use of MyGov project management software. And hopefully we will fill the remainder of our vacant positions. We recommend the council reactivate the building board. This board is already established in our local code; members simply need to be appointed. It provides an opportunity for applicants who think they have been aggrieved by city staff to appeal their case. Members come from building trades, so they have specific expertise. Presently, builders are most likely to appeal to council members, who rarely have the expertise to help properly.