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Home My WebLink About2011/04/25 BOAA Mins ' MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING BOARD OF APPEALS AND ADVISORS CITY OF CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA April 25, 2011 Conference Room #146 5:15 PM 276 Fourth Ave.. Chula Vista, CA 91910 MEMBERS PRESENT: Sanfilippo, Lopez, Sides, Jones Meservy MEMBERS ABSENT: None CITY STAFF PRESENT: Lou EI-Khazen, Building Official; Justin Gipson, Deputy Fire Chief; Maria Kachadoorian, Director of Finance; Tiffany Allen, Fiscal & Management OTHERS PRESENT: Terry Matson, NBS Janet Hung, NBS CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Chairperson Sanfilippo called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m and the secretary called the roll, 1 ROLL CALL: Members present constituted a quorum. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MSC (LM/JL) (5-0-0-0) Approve the minutes of October 11, 2010 Motion carried MSC (LM/JL) (5-0-0-0) Approve the minutes of March 14, 2011 Motion carried, 3 NEW BUSINESS: ~ A, Cost of Service Analysis and proposed Fee Schedules Mr Lou EI-Khazen, Building Official noted the last Master Fee Schedule update was done in 2007 Since then there have been significant changes to staffing levels, personnel costs and they've also adopted new codes (Green Building and Residential) that have added workload for the department, which the new fees will reflect In 2009 the City Manager developed a Fiscal Health Plan, which was endorsed by Councih One of the items in that plan was to look at our fee schedules and make sure that we are fully recovering the cost of service that we provide- Council has adopted a Citywide Cost I Recovery Policy and in most development service fees its 100% recovery, In some cases, those fees ~ have been reduced and subsidized because of urgency and emergency purposes (i a water heater replacements, gas line replacements, photovoltaic) for residential to ensure compliance. Lou said they have been working with NBS Consultants for some time now, and they will be giving an overview of the Cost Service Analysis, which also serves the basis of the hourly rates that the fees are based on The presentation would focus on fees associated with building and fire that are related to the building permit fees The fee study would be presented to City Council on June 14, 2011.. Mr Terry Matson, Consultant, with NBS gave a power point presentation providing background information about the Cost Service Analysis. After the presentation the committee members had the following comments and questions: • Are fees increasing on green building permit items (photovoltaic, etc.)? Mc EI-Khazen stated that for photovoltaic staff is proposing 25% cost recovery vs, $45. The building department currently has a program where they educate the public on incentives provided through SDG&E or the Federal Government for using energy efficient items, Incremental time that will be spent on plan check review of green building standard codes is included in the new fee schedule. Board of Appeals & Advisors Page 2 April 25, 2011 Meeting Minutes • The Board asked for clarification of the hourly rates noting a large discrepancy between the building fees ($186) and fire fees ($135), The consultant said the difference between building and fire is that the $186 actually is a cumulative fee that has some land development and - planning time built into it. He explained that the building division segregated all their fees into categories (new construction, miscellaneous, and mechanical/plumbing/electrical). The mechanical/plumbing/ electrical rate is $148 per hour because it assumes no other division is participating in the review process, Building alone reviews those plans and does that inspection. However, the new construction permits and miscellaneous items permits are also reviewed by Land Development staff and planners for compliance with zoning codes and all sorts of engineering related activities. The fire prevention's rate is a stand-alone rate for fire prevention staff only. The consultant went on and explained the other components concerning the hourly rates in relation to staff time and how that is incorporated into the building permit fee process • Is the City trying to recuperate some of its loss revenue with the new fee schedule? Mr EI- khazen stated absolutely no The main reason for the increase is purely cost recovery Legally the city is not allowed to try and recover losses from the past.. • Is the staff time being billed and permit fee increase comparable to other jurisdictions similar in population? Lou said the Consultant has compared our rates with the cities of Oceanside and San Diego and found the fees are comparable and in some instances some of our fees are lower A handout of this information was provided to the board for their review. After further deliberation, the Board unanimously recommended that the updated fee schedule be presented to the City Council for their review and approval. MSC (CS/TJ) (5-0) Recommend that the Cost of Service Analysis and proposed fee schedule be recommended to City Council for approval I, 4. MEMBERS COMMENTSICHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS/REPORTS: There was discussion about the level of service (plan check) and meeting deadlines, if same of the fees were going up the public would probably expect that reviews get done on a timely basis, It was suggested that perhaps the turnaround time ranges could be increased to be mare in keeping with what was actually occurring. Mr EI-Khazen stated that staff is working hard to achieve this; however they are limited, and when outside factors (i e. vacation, sickness, etc..) happen it impacts the workload, The department recently had three agreements approved for consultants when the workload picks up. Another option is hiring an hourly person Staff is currently working on hiring a former retired plan checker to come in and do the work versus hiring a consultant and then having to let them go after a few months because of the workload. The committee asked whether the city has considered having an express plan check where a customer would pay more for this service, Lou stated that currently the city does not have enough staff to offer this service Staff is working on a program called Express Program where certain projects will have the option of requesting expedited service Affordable housing, green building, and a list of development economic projects like , businesses that bring in 10 or more employees, specialties stores, and new construction that could take advantage of this. Justin Gipson, Deputy Fire Chief noted that Fire has offered, for the last 4 years, to expedite plan review specific to only fire functions like sprinklers, fire alarms, etc ,and it's only approved if they have the staffing to take care of it. With respect to plan check review for building permits Fire is in 90% of meeting the plan check turnaround time. This is due to restructuring the way things are processed (have 7 inspectors and 7 reviewers doing the work), More discussion took place concerning the projected plan check turnaround time and the actual time it took. Mr EI-Khazen informed the Board that he monitors this on a daily basis They are currently two weeks behind in plan check and are only meeting compliance of projected turnaround by 40% In his , view, increasing the turnaround time was not a good solution The current method is a better is a better tool for management to assess the need for additional resources Board of Appeals & Advisors Page 3 April 25, 2011 Meeting Minutes 5 BUILDING OFFICIAL'S COMMENTS/REPORTS: Lou EI-Khazen discussed the meeting room change that today's meeting was held in conference room 146 versus the other conference room (137) towards the back of the building. Staff was tryin~ to find a location that was more accessible to the board and public. Next month's meeting, May 9 would probably be held back in conference room 137 until they could find another permanent location 6 COMMUNICATIONS (PUBLIC REMARKS/ WRITTEN CORRESPONDENCE): None, Mr EI-Khazen noted that the fee increase has been presented to the stakeholders and BIA so there is public outreach about this proposal, 7 ADJOURNMENT: Chair Sanfilippo adjourned the meeting at 7:00 p m to a regular meeting on May 9, 2011 at 5:15 p m 'I,! in Planning and Building Conference Room #137. MINUTES TAKEN BY: ROSEMARIE RICE, SECRETARY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT -BUILDING DIVISION i ~I I i