Efforts to Streamline Fr. Co. Permit and Inspection Process Delayed

An effort by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners to streamline the inspections and permitting process for people wanting to build a home got a little more complicated at Monday night’s regular meeting.

As a result, those citizens will have to wait a little longer due to a miscommunication on the part of Jerry Weitz and the Board. Weitz was contracted by the County as a land-use consultant and is assisting Planning and Zoning with sorting out problems with the Unified Development Code (UDC).

In February, Board Chair Jeff Jacques proposed three changes to the permitting and inspections process to make it easier for people building a home for themselves or family members to get permits and inspections done without delays and high costs.

The first proposed change would be to allow individuals building their own homes to have the option of signing a waiver stating that they take full responsibility for adhering to state building codes, thus eliminating the cost of inspections by Bureau Veritas.

The second change he said would involve changes to third-party inspections, and a third proposed change would remove the requirement to have accessory buildings inspected that require plumbing or electricity.

And an added change he said Monday would raise the cost to poultry farmers for a permit to tear down old chicken houses and build new ones.

After weeks of work by County Attorney Bubba Samuels and staff, the Board had expected to vote on the simplified process Monday based on what Samuels indicated in March, but instead, Weitz presented a 16-page long amendment to the Unified Development Code.

“The Commission Chairman’s direction is clear about the change that is desired about the individual homeowners being able to get a building permit without getting inspections and so on and so forth,” he said. “That language has been worked out by the County attorney. That will go into the proposed building regulations chapter of the Unified Development Code…So that’s in the works and you will see that again next month…The other part I would say is somewhat administrative but also police on the part of the Board of Commissioners is to set fees and you would normally do that by resolution. There was some work already done on my part in conjunction with the County Attorney to begin to put that back together. There is one that you have now but frankly, it’s got some vagueness or ambiguity in it that needs to be clarified. So we would bring you back a new fee schedule that addresses, not only it is a fee schedule but it’s a fee applicability interpretation on your part what requires a permit and what does not require a permit.”

He also referred to state law requirements regarding third-party inspections, noting citizens would still have to pay a fee to the county whether they used their own third-party inspector or the County’s inspector, which is Bureau Veritas.

Private home builders have complained to the County about the high cost of inspections by Bureau Veritas and earlier this year, Jacques said what they charge is far more expensive than surrounding counties that have their own in-house inspectors.

Weitz suggested the Board and County attorney review his research with a view toward voting next month but Jacques objected noting time is of the essence and his report was the opposite of what the County and BOC were asking for.

“I would just say time is of the essence. This ordinance, as adopted, has put an undue burden on our residents…and we are just doing our absolute best to move forward and provide some semblance of relief with the regulatory burden…, the cost… We want to approach this with a sense of urgency and again, our expectation was that we would have something here tonight,” Jacques explained.

“And with what you provided that details state law and third-party sections, we’ve got a real problem because we’re not trying to add regulation to reduce bureaucracy,” Jacques continued. “Yes, we want to stay in the legal lane but we want it to be streamlined where any citizen can pick up a document and go through there and read and see exactly what the requirements are in the process. This is far too regulatory, far too bureaucratic. And if we’re not able to do something with this, I know we’re talking about the UDC, this is a totally separate issue. And from the burden that has been imposed upon the citizenry from day one, I would be willing, if we’re not able to rectify this, and I understand the need for inspections, I would be willing to vote the building and permitting down, if we cannot streamline this.”

Jacques added that the Board has spent a tremendous amount of time revamping the permitting and inspection process and has fielded numerous calls from constituents complaining about the cost and delays waiting for inspections to the point where it’s untenable.

“It was my suggestion and I’ll take the heat for that by saying ‘let’s put it in the UDC’ and we recognize that that’s going to cause a delay and I understand you’re not happy with that,” Weitz responded. “One of the things you could do is it does not have to be in the Unified Development Code and if it doesn’t then it’s like any other ordinance that doesn’t necessarily require a public hearing and certainly doesn’t have to go before the Planning Commission.”

“That is the direction we thought we were going,” Jacques said.

After more discussion, Weitz said he would go back to the drawing board and put together an inspection and permit ordinance to have ready for the next regular meeting in June.