People who sent in job applications for building trades inspectors for the Village of Lake Orion will have to wait to see if they’ll be hired.
Village council members on Feb. 10 asked LO Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel to contact Michigan officials and explain the problems the village has been having with state inspectors doing village construction inspections.
Council members had expected to decide whether they wanted to contract with independent trades inspectors, but decided to delay any action until they heard from the state.
The council recently took the first step in doing its own inspections when it adopted the Michigan Construction Code and agreed it would be enforced.
Council members started considering doing their own inspections after they were told by Van Tassel that state inspectors don’t enforce any of the village’s zoning rules.
According to village attorney Gary Dovre, he has read the construction code and “the authority is there” (to enforce village zoning ordinances).
“Apparently it’s not something they feel compelled to do,” he added. “I’m speculating they don’t have enough manpower to do more than bare construction matters.”
A builder or homeowner who wants to build a structure must first submit a set of plans to the village. The village’s zoning coordinator checks to see if all the village’s zoning rules are followed. Once that has been approved, the plans are submitted to the state. State officials check to see if all construction codes are being followed before they issue a building permit.
According to Van Tassel, plans are sometimes altered, changing proper village zoning requirements. State inspectors don’t pay attention to these discrepancies. And village officials don’t find out about them unless a neighbor complains.
“If we could prevent people from altering their blueprints, I would stay with the state,” councilman Bill Siver said. “But now, once they get approval from the state, they can do whatever they want.”
Councilman Douglas Dendel told Van Tassel he would like to see an outline of how the village’s inspection department would be set up.
He admitted he still would rather have Orion Township inspectors do the work. “It will be cheaper in the long run,” he said. He wanted the village manager to contact township officials again to see when they could discuss doing the work.
Late last year, Van Tassel was notified by township officials that they couldn’t consider doing inspections at that time because they had just adopted the 2003 budget.
Van Tassel said the township’s next budget discussions would start in August or September.
Nancy Patterson, the village’s planning and zoning coordinator, sent out a survey to 43 people who applied for a building permit in 2002. She received a response from 17 of them,
Overall, the comments about state inspections were good, calling the building inspector “very professional” and saying the inspectors “did a very good job.”
One problem that was mentioned was the length of time it took (three-four weeks) to get a state building permit after the village approved the zoning.
One person complained that state inspections were only done twice a week.