Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, July 2 - 8, 2015
LOCAL
Page 9A
Building permits, inspections rising in county
by Andrew Cauthen
andre w@dekalb champ, com
Building permits are on
the rise in DeKalb County—
and with them, county in
spections.
Through the end of May,
the county had issued 2,579
building permits—including
1,378 commercial and 1,125
residential, according to
Andrew Baker, the county’s
director of planning and
sustainability.
In 2012, there were
1,657 building permits is
sued; there were 1,375 in
2013 and 1,602 in 2014.
The county performs
approximately 800 building
inspections per month.
“For our staff to be able
to get out there and do that
large volume of inspections
is a compliment to the staff,”
Baker said.
The county has consoli
dated all of its inspections—
building, fire and trade—
into one department “to
make it easier for us to have
[an] overall smooth permit
ting process,” Baker said.
And the streamlined
process is working, he said.
Median review days and
customer wait times are de
creasing.
Approximately 90 per
cent of trade inspections—
plumbing, electrical and
HVAC—are completed on
the scheduled day. Through
May 2015, inspectors had
performed 14,638 trade in
spections.
The totals for all of 2013
and 2014 were 13,398 and
12,877, respectively.
For building inspec
tions, 95 percent are com
pleted on the scheduled day.
Inspectors performed ap
proximately 4,500 in 2013.
They have performed the
same through May 2015.
Ninety-nine percent of
fire inspections are complet
ed on the scheduled day.
Baker said the county
also has developed an ex
pedited commercial plan
review process using peer
reviewers.
“We have a database
of peer reviewers who
are qualified,” Baker said.
“If you need your project
within a certain amount of
time, you can select one of
those certified firms and
then they can actually sub
mit those projects to us and
we will guarantee that those
projects are returned within
10 days.
“If you’re in a crunch
and really need to get those
plans out—you want to
have a grand opening or
something—we have a list of
certified reviewers that are
familiar with our process,
and you can pay them to
complete your plans, sub
mit them to us and we will
definitely turn those around
in an expedited [time],” he
said.
“Though we’ve made
a lot of strides and we’ve
made improvements and
we’ve done consolidations
and we’re trying different
approaches to our plan re
views, we’re not there yet,”
Baker said.
“Any time that you have
the number of inspections
and reviews that we’re actu
ally doing, there [are] always
going to be some hiccups,”
he added.
The changes have gone
over well with customers,
Baker said. More customers
report a positive experience
in April 2015 compared with
a year ago.
^
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