City Moves Closer to Adoption of a Building Code.

At the Maquoketa City Council meeting of October 1, 2001, the Council voted 5-2 to approve the first reading of a proposed building code ordinance.

This vote is expected to be followed by second and third readings of the ordinance at the regular City Council meetings on October 15 and November 5. If it passes through these stages, the ordinance will become effective upon publication in the local newspaper, but will not necessarily become enforceable until after a Building Commission can be appointed and a building official can be hired.

Key Features of the Code. The code that Maquoketa has moved forward to adopting will include these key features:

1.) By reference, the ordinance adopts portions of the 1994 Uniform Building Code, 1994 National Electric Code, 1994 Uniform Mechanical Code, and 1994 Uniform Plumbing Code.

2.) The ordinance also adopts sections of the Iowa State Building Code, but this does not represent a wholesale adoption of the State Building Code. By not making a wholesale adoption of the State Building Code, the City is allowed to create a local Building Commission and exercise local control over its ordinance.

3.) The scope of the ordinance covers only areas where new construction takes place or where the external dimensions of an existing structure have changed. As with the City's current zoning ordinance, no such new construction can occur before a building permit has been issued.

4.) There are exceptions to what the ordinance covers. For example, work that does not change the external dimensions of an existing structure does not require a permit. Work that does not require a permit can be done by anyone. The people who do such work are not required to be registered with the City as contractors. In addition to these exceptions, the local Building Commission that is set up by this ordinance has the ability to recommend other exceptions to the ordinance to the City Council.

5.) Building permit fees will be set by City Council resolution.

6.) Building permits will require work to begin within 120 days of issuance. This would reduce the time allowed under the current zoning ordinance from 180 days. Under this ordinance, projects, if not given an extension, must be completed within one year of issuance. This would reduce the time allowed under the current zoning ordinance from two years.

7.) As with the current zoning ordinance, the Building Official may revoke or suspend a building permit if a contractor or property owner does not comply with the ordinance. However, the Building Official's decision to revoke or suspend a permit may be appealed to the Maquoketa Building Commission.

8.) As with the current zoning ordinance, the Building Official has the authority to inspect the work that was applied for under the permit.

9.) A five member, local Building Commission will be established. Two of its duties will be to act as an advisory committee to the Building Official and listen to appeals to overturn his/her decisions. In the end, Building Commission decisions can be appealed to the City Council.

10.) Upon completion of a project, the Building Official is to perform a final inspection of each project and issue a certificate of occupancy if the project passes inspection.

11.) People who work in the building trades and whose work is subject to the requirements of this ordinance are required to register with the City every two years for a $10 fee. The idea of registering contractors is meant to give the City information about who is in town and representing themselves as contractors. While not requiring either insurance or a bond to register, the registration form may ask contractors whether or not they are insured or bonded. Such information would be available to the general public.

Reasons for the Adoption of a Building Code. The reasons for adopting a building code are several. The following list offers several of the strongest points for having a code as noted by our local officials and several officials in other communities that were contacted as resources:

1.) A code keeps builders or contractors from taking shortcuts on the quality of projects.

2.) The existence of a code offers property owners added security that their structures have been well-built.

3.) Projects that are bid based on a building code are more "apples to apples" in their results.

4.) A code enhances fire safety on levels such as: providing for better wiring, requiring appropriate materials, requiring appropriate construction methods, and having correct exits.

5.) Buildings constructed according to a code will have a longer lifetime.

6.) The existence of a code helps with a town's ISO rating and may help with insurance rates.

7.) The inspectors in some cities are also Fire Dept staff and/or perform other types of inspections, such as for grass/weed abatements and nuisances.

8.) A building official/inspector, if qualified, can also perform other types of inspections that a city might have to pay more to have others do. Examples might be the types of inspections that are normally purchased from engineering firms that involve street construction and the installation of water and sewer mains.

How Will a Building Official be Paid For? In the current year's City Budget, the cost of a building inspection department assumes that an inspector will cost about $40,000 in wages. That amount is higher than in some towns, but lower than in others. Other departmental expenses include the cost of benefits, telephone, vehicle, office, and a capital improvement plan. The total budget for this department for the current fiscal year was set at $58,525. The total budget in the previous fiscal year was set at $64,310, however, nothing from this budget was spent.

On the revenue side of the City Budget, the City staff made revenue projections based on three factors. First, a hypothetical new building permit fee structure was applied to the actual building permit activity for a 12-month period. This fee structure is the same one as used by the City of De Witt, IA, but has not been officially adopted by Maquoketa. Second, based upon discussions with the City of Asbury to share the costs of a building official, their community will pay for 25% of the budget expenses for our building code department with this percentage being reviewed on an annual basis. Third, property taxes would have to cover the rest of the expenses for this department.

     Revenue Sources                               Revenue                Percentage of Total Revenues

1.) Building Permit fees:                            $31,576                                        54%

2.) City of Asbury's payment:                  $14,631                                        25%

3.) Property Taxes:                                     $12,318                                        21%

Total Budget:                                            $58,525                                     100%

Other Types of Revenue, Other Types of Inspection. The cost of a building inspector might be partially defrayed by using this position to perform some of the types of city inspection that the City currently hires others to do at a higher hourly cost.

Some examples of inspection costs that the City has paid its engineering firm for "typical" street projects in Maquoketa can be given. However, City's Engineering Firm has told us to keep in mind that it is not likely that a City Inspector will be able to do all types of inspections. For instance, a City Inspector would be less likely to inspect the quality of concrete or asphalt. But, an inspector could inspect water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer mains for proper installation. An inspector could also monitor the depths of mains and quantities of materials being used.

Here are some examples of inspection costs that the City has paid to the City's Engineering Firm, IIW Engineering of Dubuque, IA.

South Main Project: This project occurred in 1998. The total inspection costs to the City were $4583.

East Quarry Project: This project occurred in 1998. The total inspection costs to the City were $3551.

Shoreline Project: This project occurred in 1999. The total cost of inspection was $11,402.

Car Wash/Hwy 64 Project: This project occurred in 1999. The total inspection cost was $4292.

Westgate Plaza Project: This project is underway. The estimated cost of inspection (to be paid for by the developer) is $18,300.

Other projects that have also occurred in the last few years that have caused the City to hire outside inspection services involved the asphalt overlay on West Platt Street in 2000; the paving and installation of water, sewer, and storm mains in the area of North Main in 1998; and various types of activities involved in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 development of the Highway 61 Industrial Park from 1999 to the present.

The charge for a senior inspector from our engineering firm is $63.50 per hour for the period of September 1, 2001 to August 30, 2002.

How Will Building Permit Fees Affect the Cost of Building Projects? The adoption of a building code and the hiring of a building official will not be without added costs to help pay for this new City department.

Again, using the hypothetical fee structure that was used to help calculate a departmental budget, the City staff estimated three types of projects which all involve new construction. The first section figures a fee based on square footage that was multiplied with a per foot value. The second section figures a fee based on construction costs.

Square Footage      Current Fees      Hypothetical Fees

Garage, detached                    250                      $ 21.50                     $ 67.50

House addition                       230                      $ 59.00                    $135.00

House, new                           1846                      $250.00                    $626.00

Construction Costs     Current Fees     Hypothetical Fees

Garage, detached                   $ 2,500                      $ 21.50                    $ 49.50

House addition                    $ 15,000                      $ 59.00                   $162.00

House, new                          $125,000                    $250.00                    $709.50

Footnotes. The adoption of a building code was first identified in a goal-setting meeting for our elected people in January 1998. It was named as a goal of the City Council of that time. Most of the people who are on the Council now were members of the Council then. Since the 1998 goal session, some faces on the Council have changed, but the ranking of the building code as one of the Council's top goals has endured.

In pursuing the adoption of a building code, the Council has looked at various versions of codes that are in use elsewhere. The Council's Municipal Enterprises Committee also met with several contractors and general citizens over a course of several months in order to create a Maquoketa-version of a code.

Last year on July 24, the Council held a public hearing concerning an earlier version of an ordinance that would have adopted a building code. A much stronger opposition appeared at that meeting than did at the public hearing of September 24, 2001. Many of the comments at last year's public hearing centered on specific problems that citizens had with the earlier version of the building code ordinance.

In re-drafting the ordinance, the Council made an effort to try to address a number of concerns by omitting a number of features that were part of the earlier ordinance. The features that were deleted included: a licensing procedure for contractors that was more costly and revocable, a multiple page list of local construction standards, and language that would have required inspection of remodeling and other types of projects within the existing dimensions of structures.