Council endorses plan to speed-up building plan checks
Objective is to expedite process, create appeals board
At Tuesday night’s Paso Robles City Council meeting, the council endorsed a new plan check review improvement program brought to the council by an ad hoc committee made up of Councilman John Hamon and Mayor Steve Martin. They also endorsed the formation of a building liaison working group, and directed staff to look into creating an appeals board.
The plan check review process is required after obtaining a building permit for a proposed construction project. To obtain a building permit, a project must first go through the plan check process.
City Community Development Director Warren Frace presented a report that said as a result of the Great Recession, residential development in Paso Robles dropped significantly. In response, the city’s building division staffing was reduced approximately 40 percent. As the economy recovered, construction permitting activity began increasing. In 2014, permit activity began to exceed staff resources, resulting in increased plan check timeframes, lower levels of customer service and increasing complaints regarding the permitting process.
Because of the building division staffing cuts, much of the plan check process was outsourced to local agencies. In an effort to be thorough and prevent potential legal ramifications, these agencies often found corrections that may actually stem from misinterpretations of the code.
“Originally, the process would be: send your plans in, get corrections, resend the plans with the corrections and then obtain your permit,” said builder Vince Vanderlip. He said that in recent years, the process instead often included many rounds of corrections.
The time frame of the plan check process increased due to lack of staff, increased corrections, and other factors from 60 to 90 days up to 6-8 months, according to Vanderlip.
Another concern that was raised recently is the lack of an appeals board. An appeals board would allow builders to appeal requested corrections or denials. The UBC or Uniform Building Code, states that there shall be an appeals board for the plan check review process. Paso Robles has been operating without an appeals board, with the council acting as the appeals board instead, which, while it is within the law, can significantly deter builders from making appeals.
Yet another concern that was raised was that the outside agencies that were reviewing the plans were not certified by the International Code Council or ICC. At Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Jim Reed made a motion that unanimously passed that would check into what it would take to get these review personnel licensed, as per state law.
A “Permit Audit Workshop” was held December 3, 2014 to discuss permitting issues and concerns with the development community. Based on the comments received at the workshop, the building official developed a plan check review improvement program. At March 17 city council meeting, the program was not endorsed, with the council saying that the program needed further review, so council requested a second workshop be held for the development community. So on April 22, the building division hosted a second workshop.
The main concerns that were voiced at the workshops were to:
- Simplify and speed up the plan check process
- Begin an in-house express plan check program
- Update the Building Permit software system
On Tuesday, the ad hoc committee offered up the following revised program to address these issues:
Part 1- Focused plan check direction to contract plans examiners
The contract plans examiners have been directed to stop identifying items that are not necessary in order to determine substantial conformance or may otherwise be handled by inspectors in the field.
Part 2- Screening of contract plan check corrections, prior to applicant release.
Plan check correction memorandums from the contract plans examiners will be reviewed by building staff, prior to forwarding to the applicant. Where conflicts or un-necessary plan check corrections are identified, staff will modify them to help speed up the process.
Part 3- Screening of applicant corrections prior to routing to the Contract Plans Examiner
Staff will screen re-submitted corrections for completeness and to insure that all items have been addressed by the applicant, prior to routing to the Contract Plans Examiner for re-check. If application is not complete, or if the correction items have not been fully addressed, the plans will be returned to the applicant to complete the corrections.
Express check program
Starting in June 2015, from 8:30-11 on Thursday mornings, staff will be available at the permit counter to meet with applicants, and pre-screen applications that meet the Express Check criteria. Applications that are determined to be complete may be submitted as Express Check applications. Express Check applications will be reviewed in-house.
Updated automated permit tracking system
The City’s antiquated permitting software was purchased in 1989. The current system lacks many expected features including web interfaces, mobile support and financial tracking capabilities. The implementation date for a new system will be in 2016.
In a separate agenda item, council approved the appropriation of funds from the reserve to cover consulting services regarding the maintenance and operation of the new permit software.
The council passed the endorsement of the new plan check review improvement program unanimously.
“I think that the new improvement program is really a step in the right direction,” said Vanderlip. “The city is really trying to address this issue, it will just take time.”
