Wednesday, October 5, 2016
State Asks County To Reconsider Stance on Residential Codes
On Tuesday evening, county commissioners met as a committee-as-a-whole to listen to a presentation from the State of Tennessee regarding the adoption of residential codes in Lawrence County. Per Tennessee Code, counties have three options in dealing with residential building codes.
First, a county, by a two-thirds majority vote of the county legislative body, may opt-out of the new law. If it decides to opt-out, the county would have to revisit the issue every four years; having to act within 180 days of the next General Election to decide whether or not to continue to be exempt. Secondly, a county may adopt its own set of building codes and begin local enforcement of those codes. Lastly, by taking no action, the State will automatically begin enforcement of the new codes.
Most recently, in 2014 the Lawrence County Commission opted-out of the minimum state residential codes for one and two family dwellings, meaning there would be no mandated building codes in Lawrence County. In total, there are 37 counties in Tennessee that have opted-out of residential codes. At Tuesday's meeting, Director of Electrical, Residential and Marina for the State of Tennessee, Gary Farley, told commissioners that Lawrence County's opt-out status will now come at a price.
Farley explained that his office had recently been notified that despite the county's opt-out status, residential inspections had been taking place in the county for the past six years, in particular dealing with citizens who are seeking loans through federally funded programs such as USDA Rural Development, VA and FHA. Farley explained that these programs require applicants to have inspections and receive a Certificate of Occupancy in order to comply with the terms of their loan.
According to Farley, state law says that if a county-opts out of residential codes, even private citizens are not allowed to request inspections within the county's jurisdiction. This effectively means that so long as the county is opted-out of residential codes, citizens will not be able to fulfill the terms for such programs and loans going forward. This came as a shock to several commissioners.
"I have served on the commission ever since the state legislature passed the residential codes law in 2009 and I had never heard this interpretation of the law until last week," said Commissioner Chris Jackson. "The county commission has always opted out of residential codes based on the assumption that opting out meant there would be no government mandated codes within the county; not that private citizens and builders could not get inspections if they needed them. There has never been an issue until the State brought it up a week ago," he explained. Jackson added that the adoption of residential codes has always been an unpopular issue with his constituents in the past and could be a financial burden to many citizens, especially after the county had to raise property tax just two years ago.
According to Farley, if the county were to adopt residential codes, people beginning construction on a new residential home must obtain a permit and inspections must be performed, generally during the foundation, framing, and final stages of construction. The cost of the permit would based on the cost of construction. For a home costing between $5,000 and $100,000, the permit would be $350.
For each additional $50,000 in construction cost, the permit would increase exponentially by $50. On each project, one free re-inspection may be performed if the building were to fail an earlier inspection. However, each additional re-inspection would cost an additional $100. Any additions added to one or two family dwelling of more than thirty square feet would also require a permit.
Contractors and sub-contractors would also have to be state licensed and certified under the codes program, a factor which could lead to higher construction costs, but also improve the quality of work and improve safety according to Farley.
County Executive TR Williams told commissioners that over the past week, he had reached out to the county mayors of several other counties that had also opted-out of residential codes to see how they are handling the situation. Williams said that in the days ahead he will be working to bring a recommendation to the full commission on how to best proceed on the situation now facing the county.
