Sean C. Morgan
A difference of opinion among staff members of the city Community Development Department and its building division led to confusion over the last few years when an occupancy permit was required, a problem that has been resolved by the use of a private contractor, city officials say.
The department is overhauling its processes to make the building division more user-friendly.
Questions about how to apply the occupancy permit requirement, a part of state building code, were resolved last year when the city began contracting for building official services.
Until 2007, the city had never required occupancy permits, said Community Development Director Carol Lewis. The city began requiring the permits because they were part of the building code, but contention arose over the following years over when and how they should be implemented. The department kept refining it from that point forward, trying to make sure the city was following the code.
Last April, for internal reasons, the city began using the Building Department, an LLC based in Eugene, as the city’s building official, Lewis said. She had previously worked with the company for plan reviews when she worked in Toledo.
The city has had building officials in the past, depending on the certification of its building inspectors, Lewis said. Currently, Sweet Home has two half-time building inspectors. Building officials administer and enforce building codes, while building inspectors complete on-site inspections and plan reviews.
With the new building official, the city began resolving the questions about the occupancy permit requirement.
“This continued to be an issue that was raised every time we had a pre-app with someone,” Lewis said. “All this controversy swirled around it.”
The city had required that new businesses and new owners obtain an occupancy permit, which requires the building to meet fire, life and safety codes, even if the classification of business or the business itself did not change.
It was not something that changed in one day, Lewis said. The building code includes separate sections for new buildings and existing buildings.
Department officials started looking at the “existing buildings” section, which says that the occupancy permit triggers only when the use of a building involves a change in classification, Lewis said. For example, a building where a business sells socks changing to some type of manufacturing would probably trigger the occupancy permit requirement.
Simply changing business owners does not trigger the permit requirement, Lewis said. Even changing what the businesses does not necessarily mean the requirement is triggered.
New construction and other improvements may trigger it, she said.
“We still tell folks it’s a good idea to come in and do a pre-app,” Lewis said. Unlike other cities, Sweet Home’s pre-app process is free.
Most people do not know when they are changing classification, Lewis said. “You might want to come in and ask.”
One situation that recently came up was a space to be set up as a “classroom,” Lewis said. The space had been used for an office. The business plan was for meeting with one to three people at a time, educating them. It was not a classroom in the sense of a school. The city determined that it was not a change in classification and therefore did not require an occupancy permit.
The building process is running smoothly from the city’s perspective, Lewis said, and members of the building division are meeting and working on new ways of doing things to simplify the building permit process.
The idea is to reduce the need for repeat visits and make requirements clearer, Lewis said. The effort to change the process grew out of a newspaper article that quoted Economic Development Director Brian Hoffman on making things easier to promote economic development.
Building Department employees told city officials that the initial permit application packet was huge and suggested changing it, Lewis said.
“We’re working on that right now,” Lewis said. “People that are applying for permits should start noticing quickly.”
The changes will make the process less intrusive and easier to navigate for those who may be unfamiliar with the process, Lewis said. The city’s clientele has a diverse level of knowledge when it comes to building codes and the building permit process.
The process can frustrate contractors, and when they get frustrated they tell other people about the experience, Lewis said. The department is simplifying forms and information materials so that builders do not find out their applications are incomplete and they must go out, gather more information and return repeatedly.
The building inspectors and officials will make instructions clearer, letting contractors know exactly what they must accomplish to pass inspections, including the words “provide” or “revise” on each instruction following an inspection, Lewis said. The process wasn’t really wrong before, but “I think we could do it better” and make it easier for customers.
The city changed many forms over the past year, Lewis said. It is changing the check lists and making things more consistent.
This is the most comprehensive review of the process that she is aware of, Lewis said. It’ll change again in the future, but these changes are good and will help improve the building permit experience.
For more information about permits, call the building division at (541) 367-7993.