Travis County Commissioners Court
September 1, 2009,
Item 4
4.
consider and take appropriate action regarding resolution adopting house bill 2833, relating to certain building code standards applicable to the unincorporated areas of certain counties; providing a penalty, enacted by the 81st legislature regular session, and a description of the Travis County implementation plan.
>> good morning.
>> the last time we met you asked for a summary of what responsibilities the county would take on by adopting the provisions of house bill 2833.
your backup does that.
by and large, we're stepping into the shoes of the state agency that is currently doing this.
that is sunsetted out.
there are three inspections that are required of resident -- new residential construction in the unincorporated area.
we will -- we will have that as one of our requirements that -- that the home builders use one or another version of the international building code.
and they tell us what version they are using.
we are asking them to provide to us those inspection reports.
so we can keep them on file, along with all of the other building information that we retain for -- for structures in the county.
we currently issue a development permit to our floodplain program.
we retain records on on site sewage systems, this would be one more document in our files.
we are asking and if you -- if you see the latest version of the order adopting the new chapter in our code, we are asking that the home builders provide us some electronic copy of those building inspection reports.
it is our intent to put them into an electronic format that is accessible by the -- by the web.
so if anyone is interested, just like they can today go to the -- go to the web and get t cad records on property appraisals.
we hope that we will be able to do the same thing, just go directly to the website, get whatever information they want about -- about the home and how it was built.
that way we're just merely a conduit of information.
and the inspection report may very well indicate that the inspection failed.
we do not enforce the inspecting.
i want to make -- the inspection.
i want to make that clear.
the law does not allow us to make the inspection.
it merely allows us to enforce the notice that the building has been inspected.
we will -- we're not required to retain the records, but as I recommended to the court, I think that it's a good idea that -- that Travis County take on that responsibility.
we believe that we can do that with existing staff for the near future anyway because of the depression of the housing market.
it may be in two or three years from now, if things really crank up, we may need an additional staff to -- to take care of the record keeping, but I'm hoping that by the electronic transfer of information that will be nominal.
any questions?
>> the legislation that we are statutorily barred from charging a fee to recover the costs of the -- of the database that we are developing, but I also understand from your previous -- presentation that -- that the cost is dimini mous for maintaining the database right now.
>> about 2800, maybe 3,000 permits per year to be filed with the county if our building permits are any indication of volume in a good year, so we believe that we can probably handle that right now with existing staff merely because there's not a whole lot coming in.
>> uh-huh.
>> since the legislation prohibits the county from enforcing the code, are there any other opportunities out there for enforcement?
>> I would imagine, perhaps the county attorney's office can help me, there may be some civil actions that a home builder, home owner can take on the inspector or the home builder.
but I don't think the county would have a -- would have a -- a hand in that.
>> right.
>> also, just for clarification purposes for anyone who may be watching this, this would be no new structures being built going forward at this point in time.
>> that's correct.
>> depending on the effective date of the court's action, you can make this effective today or October 1 or whenever the order is currently read today, September 1, we would start doing this.
>> is the law effective September 1.
>> the law takes effect today.
the way that it -- that the legislation reads is that -- is that if you enact something, it will affect any new construction that takes place after September 1st.
if you don't enact anything today, there won't be anything --
>>
>> [indiscernible] whatever happens after enactment actually
>> [indiscernible] umbrella.
in other words, if we were to do this next week, instead of today, how is it that will
>> [indiscernible]
>> right.
i think that you can choose that.
but if you don't enact something for today, that makes -- you will have a gap.
>> yes, right.
>> I understand from -- do I understand from the legislation that the county can bring an action for injunctive relief, although it would be really rare that the county would, because it's only injunctive relief to provide notice.
>> enforcement authority is very, very limited to just enforcement of -- of the fact of providing the -- the requirement to provide the notice.
it's not enforcement of the code itself.
>> and if there's just a down right refusal to provide notice that's a class c misdemeanor.
>> correct.
>> and -- and Commissioner Huber, you asked to apply to new construction, the distinction new construction includes if you want it to, the way that we have drafted this, it includes re-- major remodeling.
>> I move approval.
>> second.
>> anybody else here on this item who would like to address the court?
any discussion of the motion?
>> judge, you all will need to decide on what chapter number to adopt this under.
>> that's why you left it blank, in the order.
i was wondering about that, I was scared to ask.
joe, what's a good number over in t.n.r.?
>> what did we suggest, 80 --
>> 80, 81, I think those two are available.
>> 81 sounds good to me.
>> do we have a plan to -- to upload that -- that new code provision to --
>> we can do that.
>> to a user friendly website.
>> yeah, for sure.
>> I need to double check on the availability of 81, but I think 81 is available.
but I know that 80 is available as well.
so -- so do you all want to go with one or the other?
>> let's go with what we know, 80.
>> 80.
all right.
>> incorporate that in the motion.
>> okay.
>> the Commissioner brought up a good point.
i guess to alert the public only on -- as far as what we are doing here today, what other medium of notice of what we're doing here today could we get to the public?
because this is going to go into effect.
of course they need to be apprised of it.
how -- how -- how do we alert them other than -- is there any other mechanism, other than -- can you think of anything, Commissioner?
>> there is an effort afoot at staff level across -- across the divisions to -- to put county code that's ready together and up on the web.
so --
>> okay.
>> the main thing is that we need to go to the home builders themselves who do have representation here.
this is occurring state-wide, not just Travis County.
>> exactly.
>> I would think their newsletters would probably indicate the action that the court takes today.
they are already in the habit of doing this for the state agency, so it's merely to notify them that Travis County is now taking up that -- that notice requirement.
>> I was thinking about those folks.
i always think about those folks that don't have computers and a whole bunch of other stuff.
but anyway that's just another avenue.
>> this bill does not apply to someone who is renovating their own home or building their own home for their own use.
>> that's correct.
>> correct?
>> that's correct.
so it really does apply --
>> professional builders.
>> professional builders.
>> okay.
that's a good point, though.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 3:14 PM
