Code Consultants International Public Sector Services
Planning Services
Code Consultants International, Inc. provides the following planning services:
- Public-Private Partnerships
- Intergovernmental Agreement’s (IGA’s)
- Expediting Development Projects through the Public Development Review Process at the City and County levels
- Land Use Planning (commercial, planned development, light industrial, residential, open space, corridor plans)
- Assessment of current Planning Tools - Land Use Code Crafting and Updating (comprehensive plans, design standards, zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, landscape ordinances, economic development strategies)
- Land Use Planning Training, Technical Assistance and Workshops
- Grant writing
Our firm maintains the philosophy that there is often a communication gap between the public and private partners in development. Our team strives to bridge this gap by offering our services to the public sector. We strive to hire and retain employees from both the private and public sectors to maintain a mix of experiences from which we can all benefit.
Our approach is to become a seamless partner to our clients and to help them with specific planning, zoning or building needs at any stage. We believe that this philosophy reflects an ideal blend of public and private sector experience dedicated to providing high quality, results-oriented project management and governmental approval services to developers as well as providing extensive planning, development review, and code writing services to our clients.
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Building Department Services
Funding Issues
We believe that building departments with the proper fee schedule should be entirely funded by those fees. In addition, soft costs such as administrative overhead from other departments such as planning, engineering, legal, city manager, etc. should be included in fee studies to determine total costs. We will work with the local jurisdiction to explore funding options and make recommendations on staffing and additional service fees as appropriate.
Permit Automation
Code Consultants International, Inc. is committed to the use of technologies for permit, inspection, plan review, development review, engineering permits, utility permits, fire protection permits and other governmental functions that lend themselves to automation. We have experience in setting up permitting software systems for building, planning, engineering and utility functions using Accela products and off-the-shelf software such as MS Access.
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City Engineer Administrative Services
Our staff includes building department administrators with over 40 years of combined experience. We have an intimate understanding of the building department function and code administration issues. Our unique private sector experience has allowed us to observe numerous building departments in action. Our experience in setting up and reorganizing building departments as well as staffing and permit processing gives our clients the expertise that is needed for any administrative issues that arise.
Staffing Issues
While most building departments are staffed with certified, trained and dedicated individuals, it is very common to see understaffed departments striving to meet their required duties to provide inspections & plan reviews as demanded by the construction industry. Often both the inspection staff and the construction industry are frustrated when inspections are not made the day requested. We can address these issues with inspection services performed either on an “as needed” or full time basis.
Plan Reviews
Plan review service levels can become heavy enough that the local building department can experience backlogs of plans and long turn around times. We offer expedited review services to the applicant for an additional fee and have the resources to keep plan review turn around times short consistently. In addition, we employ qualified engineers to perform peer reviews rather than relying on persons who may be certified as plans examiners but lack engineering qualifications.
Our turn-around time examples are as follows:
- New single-family 1 week
- Home addition at the counter
- Restaurant /tenant finish 1 week
- Large commercial 2 weeks
Construction Industry Schedules vs. Building Department Schedule
Like it or not, the construction industry expectations do not match the service level provided by local building departments. The construction industry of today, especially commercial and apartment projects, operate on a 7 day a week basis while the local building department does not. In fact, the local building department or any other department for that matter, is not expected (or funded) by the jurisdiction to work 7 days a week.
A project with a duration of 12 months could be delayed 104 days due to lack of inspections on the weekend. While this is the construction industry’s problem, it can have an impact on the local economy. Fast-track development schedules can be severely restricted unless alternative inspection services are allowed or provided.
Since we offer weekend and evening inspections as requested by the contractor, this can be a very attractive climate for bringing desirable projects to the jurisdiction.
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Community Development Department Service
We have observed that while there are many different local government structures to address the development and construction industries, some obvious commonalities exist. The primary functions that supersede and/or coordinate other related functions are planning and building department functions.
The planning department is generally the first department to begin any due process review of development. The planning function of necessity acts in a coordinating role for all other affected regulatory agencies.
Once a specific project reaches the construction design phase, plans are submitted to the building department, which acts as coordinator to the other approving agencies, assuring that a permit is not issued before all required approvals and development agreements are in place. When these two functions are not working very closely together some serious problems may occur.
We offer a complete community development department service that includes planning, building department as well as civil engineering review services to provide a very integrated and efficient service where counter staff are cross-trained to accept permit applications from planning, building engineering or other entities. This promotes camaraderie and great service without any “turf” issues becoming a factor. This translates to cost savings in personnel.
We will assign a qualified civil engineer as needed to provide review and comment services as part of the development review process. Civil projects would be bid under normal processes.
As an alternate to providing full community department services we offer a community development automation package that will allow electronic coordination in real time across a secure web connection. This package will also allow the applicant to view their permit application status and schedule inspections over the web (in addition to conventional means). The web-based package also allows the city manager, council members or others to view progress. In addition, health and fire departments could electronically approve projects and speed the review process.
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Fire & Life-Safety Services
We provide fire code enforcement services to local fire districts and departments as follows:
- Site plan review
- Fire and life safety review
- Sprinkler and fire alarm review
- Permitting and documentation
- Periodic fire-safety inspections
- HAZMAT review
- Fire code adoptions
- Development review representation/comments
- Fee schedules/funding of services
We employ fire protection specialists to review fire suppression plans and complex design/HAZMAT reviews. Our inspection staff are NICET certified to perform inspections of sprinkler systems, fire alarm systems, special hazards, etc.
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