Code Consultants
International Public Sector Services
Planning Services
Code Consultants International, Inc. Specializes in 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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