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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005/06/13 Board of Appeals & Advisors Minutes MINUTES OFA REGULAR MEETING BOARD OF APPEALS AND ADVISORS CITY OF CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA June 13, 2005 Conference Room No. 1 5:15 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Jose Romo, Board Members Matt Flach, Edward Nagorski, and Donald Snider MEMBERS ABSENT: Vice-Chair West, Member Monaghan, Member Ehm MEMBERS ABSTAINING: None CITY STAFF PRESENT: Building Official Brad Remp, Deputy Building Official Lou EI-Khazen, Code Enforcement Manager Doug Leeper, Plans Examiner Supervisor Tom Nikzad, Secretary Judi Bell OTHERS PRESENT: None CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Chairman Romo called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members present constituted a quorum. 1. DECLARATION OF EXCUSED/UNEXCUSED ABSENTEEISM: West (E), Monaghan (U), Ehm (U) 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MSU Snider/Flach (4-0) to approve the minutes of regular meeting of November 8, 2004. Chairman Romo asked that minutes of special meeting of November 22, 2004 be amended to reflect that he recused himself due to conflict of interest in the appeals case being heard (MSU Snider/Flach (4-0). 3. NEW BUSINESS: A. Election of Officers for FY 2005-2006: Mr. Snider announced that he maybe moving to Arkansas in October 2005. His term expires June 30, 2006. It was also announced that Vice-Chair Ben West and Member Bryan Ehm, whose commissions each expire June 30, 2005, do not wish reappointment to the Board. Results of election: MSU Flach/Snider (4-0) to re-elect Jose Romo as Chairman and elect Edward Nagorski as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Appeals and Advisors for Fiscal Year 2005-2006. B. Electrical Code Adoption: Lou EI-Khazen, Deputy Building Official, made a presentation of an Ordinance adopting the California Electrical Code, 2004 Edition and Uniform Administrative Code Provisions for the Board of Appeals and Advisors ~ June 13, 2005 _ Page Two National Electric Code, 1996 Edition, with Amendments. This proposed ordinance amends the existing ordinance in regards to the electrical code for the City of Chula Vista. The California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) has mandated that each jurisdiction within the State of California enforce the 2004 Edition of the California Electrical Code on August 1, 2005. Usually the State adopts the various building codes at the same time and they become effective the same day. During this adoption cycle, however, actions taken by the CBSC delayed the adoption of the California Building and Fire Codes. It may take two to three years before these codes are ready for adoption by the State. California Building Standards Commission has decided to move forward with the adoption of the 2004 California Electrical Code ahead of the other codes. The proposed amendments reflect changes to the administrative components of the enforcement program that are necessary to maintain consistency with other existing provisions contained in the Municipal Code. Code uniformity is promoted throughout the jurisdictions within the County of San Diego, thus creating a positive professional environment among all code users. Discussion: Mr. Flach asked for the clarification of a communication line. He referred to the staff report which stated that the Ordinance would expand the list of types of electrical work exempt from an electrical permit to include communications circuits. Itwas explained that communications lines are lines which are law- voltage (less than 60V). Mr. Romo asked about the section of the Ordinance which explained reinspections: Deputy Building Official EI-Khazen responded that there are two ways to charge: If a reinspection is necessary because the applicant is not ready, or the plans were not onsite, or in the middle of a project something was substantially changed that required a plan change. We have the ability to charge the cost associated with processing a plan change. We track whether or not it was a plan change. The charge is for plan check time and inspection work of the inspector. Mr. Flach questioned the paragraph for previously used material: He asked if someone was doing a remodeling job, could they reuse the conduit or would they have to ask permission. The Building Official explained that this part of the ordinance was intended if someone doesn't demolish the building and get rid of the wiring and then try tc use it in a new building. We would have to check to see if it can be reused. Approval of Ordinance: MSU Romo/Flach (4-0) to recommend to City Council the adoption of the 2004 Edition of the California Electrical Code and Uniform Administrative Code Provisions forthe National Electrical Code, 1996 Edition, with Amendments. 4. CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS/REPORT: Chairman Romo requested that the Board be updated on the status of Cade Enforcement operations. The Building Official offered that a PowerPoint presentation would be scheduled for the next meeting on July 11, 2005. Mr. Romo then requested that a City Attorney attend one of the meetings in the near future and inform the Board Members of their scope of responsibility and give whatever guidance necessary. The Assistant City Attorney who will be asked to do that is Deborah Cave. Arrangements will be made to invite her to the next meeting. It is anticipated that there will be two new members by that time. The status of the abatement of the ETC Motel was briefly discussed. This was the subject of a hearing at the Board of Appeals in November 2004. The motel has been closed. 5. BUILDING OFFICIAL'S COMMENTS/REPORT: For the past year and a half we have been discussing the discrepancy between the NFPA Building Code and the ICC Building Codes. We are Board of Appeals and Advisors June 13, 2005- Page Three pleased to announce that efforts were successful and that we were able to petition the Building Standards Commission to reverse their previous decision and to go on record endorsing the adoption of the International Building Code and the International Fire Code and dropping the NFPA Building Code and Fire Code. We are now going to work closely with the state agencies in making that amendment package. If everything goes well, we still are looking at a two year process possibly to get us on to the 2006 International Building Code and International Fire Code with appropriate California amendments. Right now we're under the 1997 Uniform Building Code. It was a great coalition that put this together. We had representatives from all the agencies and probably the most pivotal person was the State Fire Marshall. He is an excellent person to work with and we're looking forward to working with him again not only on this, but also on issues regarding the Urban Wildland Interface Code (UWIC). We are continuing to make progress in developing a code adoption package that will establish specific building code standards for those structures that are built adjacent to what we refer to as Urban Wildland Interface. In 2003 we had a scary situation occur here, but we were very lucky. Homes were lost in the County and City of San Diego. We want to put together a package that will address building code requirements for those structures. that will be along that Interface and also come up with a set of criteria and requirements that help to establish a buffer zone between where these houses are and the Open Space Preserve or Multiple Species Conservation Plan (MSCP) areas. We have hired a consulting firm, Dudek & Associates. They have produced some preliminary maps already identifying where our highest risk areas are based on the vegetation, slope,. climate, and micro climate that exists in those particular areas. We have a map right now that kind of gives us a sense of how severe a particular fire may become based on where it originates and what areas would be most exposed. That will be part of the package and we will bring that to you when it becomes available. Some of the bigger challenges now are sorting out how you balance the environmental issues, that is "don't touch anything" versus we have to "go in there and thin this out" so that should a fire start there the fire department will have a reasonable chance of trying to control it before it becomes completely out of control and gets into the houses. Once it gets into the houses it is extraordinarily difficult because the embers can fly as much as a mile ahead. W e have to deal with it as quickly as possible. We're getting some very good information and we have same experts working on it. We're also working with a task force with the State Fire Marshall and getting their input because they are doing something similar. The State has significantly reduced the scope of the kinds of requirements that they were going to impose. They started out with some pretty grand ideas of all the things they were going to address and it has gotten whittled down over time. Now there are only a couple of items in this Phase I. They are experiencing some difficulties with Phase II. We have insights into what is going on at the State level as well and I avail myself with the research that they've done so that when it comes back here we can hopefully put together a much better justification package. The City Clerk's Office has been working with anewly-hired City Attorney to consolidate some aspects of the Municipal Code. One of the areas they're looking at is Boards and Commissions, how they're defined, where they're located. Right now when we do an Ordinance we include redefining the Boards and Commissions in every one of the five or six different ordinances that we adapt. They are proposing that we come up with uniform language and put it in the front of the book and then when we do these individual ordinances, we just make reference to it. There may be some issues about scope, but we haven't gotten into that discussion yet. At this point it is basically clean up language, making the book a little smaller, a little easier to follow and a little easier to change in the future. That way you don't have to worry about the same language being duplicated in five, six or seven places. New Code Enforcement Manager, Doug Leeper, was introduced to Board Members. (He was a firefighter and later a police officer (Riverside) over the course of 9-10 years; worked in Code Board of Appeals and Advisors June 13, 2005 Page Four Enforcement (San Bernardino) for 9 years; Code Enforcement (City of Riverside) for 14 months). We also hired a Senior Planner to work exclusively on Code Enforcement. Also, the City Attorney's Office has hired an attorney to work exclusively on our Code Enforcement program. We're turning the corner and making significant inroads into some areas that have been in violation for some time. The City Clerk's Office is actively recruiting for new members to replace the two who are leaving this Board. Anyone interested should submit an application to the City Clerk's Office. The background of a construction type such as engineering, architecture, contractor, electrical, plumbing/mechanical, while encouraged, is not essential. An Access Appeals Board maybe resurrected. W e have that on the books, but have not been able to fill it with members yet. It would handle complaints that deal with accessibility, i.e. ADA, Title 24. Three of the five-member board need to be individuals with a disability. 6. COMMUNICATIONS (PUBLIC REMARKS/WRITTEN CORRESPONDENCE): None 7. ADJOURNMENT: Chairman Romo adjourned the meeting at 6:12 p.m. to a regular meeting on July 11, 2005. ~/~ii BRAD REMP, C.B.O. ASST. DIR. OF PLANNING & BUILDING /BUILDING OFFICIAL SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS AND ADVISORS (1 '~kl r G ~ MIN(JTES TAKEN^BY: JUDI BELL SECRETARY PLANNING & BUILDING DEPARTMENT (J:\ Board of Appeals & Advisors FY 2004-2005\06.13.2005m.doc) l