Scott Miller/Vail Daily
Eagle County’s building permit approval process slowed to a crawl this spring. The Eagle County Board of Commissioners on Monday learned what happened.
During Monday’s working meeting, Rick Weinman, the county’s chief building official, told the commissioners that the county’s building plan inspector retired suddenly this spring, with that retirement taking effect essentially on May 1. That happened during a period when building plans are coming into the county’s building department in advance of the busy construction season, causing a backlog.
Weinman said under normal circumstances, a retirement wouldn’t create that big a problem, but since the inspector left suddenly, the backlog started in April and just kept getting more serious. In addition, it took “several weeks” to bring in a contractor to help clear the backlog, instead of the anticipated couple of weeks to bring in outside help.
A new plans inspector has been hired at this point, Weinman said, and that person is now getting up to speed. With the outside contractor now at work, the backlog of plan approvals is starting to clear.
County Manager Jeff Shroll asked if other building inspectors on the county staff could have been brought in to clear the backlog of plan approvals.
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Weinman said building inspection and plan approvals are “different functions,” and require different certifications. Some inspectors can approve plans for simple projects, but not complex plans for entire projects.
A current goal is to get some inspectors cross-trained for plan approvals.
Looking at a chart of plans in the approval process, Commissioner Tom Boyd said he still didn’t see a lot of completed inspections on that chart. But, he added, “It sounds like we’re trending in the right direction.”
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Weinman noted that roughly 20 sets of plans have been sent to the consulting firm, and those plans are expected back soon.
Acknowledging that it isn’t likely that there’s a “line of building inspectors banging down your door,” Boyd asked what the building department is doing to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Weinman noted that the county’s organization as a whole is getting younger.
In addition, Shroll said the organization is looking at alternatives, including perhaps hiring another plans examiner, adding software solutions and relying more on outside consultants.
Weinman added that the other thing the department has realized is that “our plans review is quite archaic” in that it still relies on paper documents.
The goal is to get away from paper document submissions, he said, but that’s going to take time.
Boyd noted that the process will also require cooperation with the county’s building industry. In that, “communication is hugely important,” he said.
But, “I do think you all are handling it very well,” Boyd added.