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The County Commission agreed April 1 to extend an ordinance to amend the Building Administrative Code, which sets forth the procedures, fees and penalties for the administrative and enforcement of the county’s construction codes.
The new Building Administrative Code, last amended in 2005, is available here on Development Services’ Web site.
However, although the County Commission approved the ordinance to adopt the new code, they also recommended public hearing be held until April 15th to discuss new language added to a portion of the code pertaining to the self-disclosure of unpermitted construction work, specifically Section 22.02.360(C).
Click here to view Section 22.02.360(C), as presented to the County Commission on April 1st.
Language added to Section 22.02.360(C) provided a monetary incentive for those who voluntarily come forward to obtain building permits and inspections for unpermitted work in both residential and commercial structures. Whereas property owners who are found through an investigation to have conducted unpermitted construction would be assessed a Permit Fee, Work Without a Permit Fee (up to $4000 for residential construction and $50,000 for commercial construction) and an Investigation Fee, Section 22.02.360(C) contained language that stated the Work Without a Permit Fee could be waived for those who voluntary self-disclose unpermitted work. No timeline was established to specify by which date property owners must self-disclose in order to have the Work Without a Permit Fee waived.
On April 1st, the Board responded to the language in Section 22.02.360(C) by directing Development Services to add language specifying a short period of time when people are incentivized to self-report, with the period running from the date the ordinance is adopted for existing construction, and run until the time that Certificate of Occupancy is issued for new construction, with the financial benefit being less for those who come in later to self-report.
The ordinance Development Services presented to the County Commission on April 15th contained the requested new language stating that certain fees may be waived and/or lowered for commercial property owners as a result of voluntary disclosure that occurs within 90 days of the effective date of this ordinance, or within 90 days of receiving a Certificate of Occupancy, or receiving ownership of the property. There would be no timeframe by which residential owners must self-disclose in order to receive the financial incentive.
However, the County Commission again held public hearing of this ordinance until May 6th to allow more time to discuss the ordinance's language and potential impact. The agenda for the May 6th County Commission meeting is not yet available, but will be posted to this Web page in the near future.
The ordinance discussed by the Board on April 15th can be viewed here.
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