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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES Estes Park Board of Appeals 2015-02-05RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Estes Park Board of Appeals February 5, 2015 Board Room, Estes Park Town Hall Commission: Attending: Also Attending: Absent: Brad Klein, John Spooner, Joe Calvin, Don Darling, Tony Schiaffo Members Klein, Spooner, Calvin, and Schiaffo Chief Building Official Will Birchfield, Building Inspector Claude Traufield, Permit Technician Charlie Phillips, Recording Secretary Karen Thompson Member Darling The following minutes reflect the order of the agenda and not necessarily the chronological sequence. CBO Birchfield opened the meeting. He informed the Board all meetings will be recorded and televised. Each Board member introduced himself and gave their area of expertise as follows: Member Schiaffo, Mechanical and Plumbing for 40 years; Member Calvin, Registered Architect for 25 years; Member Spooner, Registered Professional Engineer focusing on structural engineering and water resources for 45 years; and Member Klein, HVAC and Mechanical for 16 years. Note: Member Darling is a General Contractor. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Member Calvin nominated Member Spooner for Chair. Member Spooner nominated Member Schiaffo for Vice-Chair. It was moved and seconded (Calvin/Schiaffo) to elect Member Spooner as Chair of the Board of Appeals for a one year term, and the motion passed unanimousiy with one absent. It was moved and seconded (Spooner/Calvin) to elect Member Schiaffo as Vice-Chair of the Board of Appeals for a one year term, and the motion passed unanimously with one absent. A five-minute recess was called to program the voting stations. The meeting reconvened at 4:15. BOARD OF APPEALS BYLAWS Chair Spooner opened discussion on the Bylaws. CBO Birchfield stated the IBC has provisions for a Board of Appeals, which is different than the Town-generated Bylaws. Concerning item II.C, there was general consensus to revise the language to read: Regularly scheduled meetings of the Board may be canceled or rescheduled upon approval by two-thirds three of the members of the Board. Secretary Thompson stated the Bylaws were revised to reflect the changes requested at the January meeting, and confirmed that a quorum would consist of three (3) members. There was discussion concerning item III.G, which states the approval of appeals requires 60% of the members attending any meeting at which a quorum is present. CBO Birchfield explained if all members were present, approval would require three members. If three members were present, approval would require two members. If the Board did not feel confident making the decision on an appeal with only three members in attendance, the item could be continued to a future date when all members were present. Member Calvin requested clarification on whether a Board member could bring an issue to the Board of Appeals as a public citizen, not as a Board member. CBO Birchfield confirmed any member could speak as a public citizen or client representative by recusing himself from the Board and leaving the dais. It was moved and seconded (Calvin/Schiaffo) to approve the bylaws as amended (Section II.C) and the motion passed 4-0 with one absent. Chair Spooner stated the March meeting will be held March 12, 2015. Future meetings will be held the first Thursday of each month. Meetings will be held in the Town Hall Board Room from 4 to 6 p.m. 2012 SIGNIFICANT CHANGES CRITERIA CBO Birchfield distributed a handout of the 2012 Significant Changes. Although the 2012 Codes were not adopted, the changes will still apply to the 2015 Codes, unless they were repealed. Purpose of presenting the 2012 Significant Changes is to get a position of this Board as to the process being used by staff for formatting revisions. If the Board agrees, staff will use this format for the 2015 Code. With few exceptions, changes have not been identified for discussion if they meet any of the following RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Estes Park Board of Appeals 2 February 5, 2015 Board Room, Estes Park Town Hall criteria: (1) The change decreased requirements; (2) The change is for clarification; (3) The code section is not applicable in the Town of Estes Park (i.e. seismic zone D, high rises, etc.); (4) The code section is extremely technical; is rarely an issue and requires the expertise of an architect or engineer; (5) The change increases compliance options; (6) The change is exempted by Federal, State, or District regulations (i.e. NFPA 101, Colorado Department of Health & Environment, public schools, etc.); (7) The change permits methods or materials already permitted by the Chief Building Official; (8) The change provides consistency with a national standard. CBO Birchfield stated the 2015 Significant Changes would be provided to the Board a couple of weeks prior to the March meeting for their review. He would like to "assign" each significant change to the Board member or staff most qualified to lead any discussion that may come forth at the meetings. 2012 SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO THE INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE CBO Birchfield reviewed several of the 2012 Significant Changes so the Board could better understand the format, and the thoughts behind the commentary. The full document, and other documents related to the code adoptions can be viewed on the Town website at www.estes.org/icodes. CBO Birchfield stated he would be providing the format and adoption timeline to the Town Board on February 10, 2015. Feedback from the Board would be appreciated. He encouraged contractors and other members of the public to attend the meetings and become involved. The meetings are not quasi-judicial, and discussion is encouraged. Code books are available in the Division of Building Safety for check out. CBO Birchfield and staff will complete the majority of the legwork on the code revisions, and the Board and public will have the opportunity to review them and proposed amendments. The March meeting agenda will include the 2015 IBC Significant Changes. There will be a press release, and emails sent to all contractors. Depending on the time needed for discussion, the proposed local amendments to the IBC will also be discussed. CBO Birchfield stated except for the International Residential Code (IRC), all other codes are referenced in the IBC in their entirety. Chapter 1 references all the codes, which means when you adopt the IBC you also adopt all the others: International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Plumbing Code (IPC), International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC), International Fire Code (IFC), International Energy Conservation Code (lECC), and International Existing Building Code (lEBC). Each code will be reviewed in the order listed in the IBC. The IRC is different in that it stands alone and provides all the information needed to build a residential dwelling. It pulls in sections from other codes rather than adopting the entire code by reference. CBO Birchfield stated each monthly meeting would involve discussion of significant changes, proposed local amendments, and stakeholder and public concerns for one of the International Codes. Each month, a different code would be on the agenda. Additional public meetings could be held in between the regular meetings if discussions were not resolved at the regular meeting. He plans to keep the Town Trustees informed on a regular basis as to recommendations of this Board. If all goes according to plan, the Board of Appeals would make a final recommendation for all codes in November, and at least one public hearing would be held by the Town Board late November or early December. Concerning public comment at Board of Appeals meetings, he stated it is the Chair's responsibility to keep the meeting on task and moving forward. FEES CBO Birchfield stated the fee schedule currently adopted is based on valuation, which includes costs plus labor. The Division of Building Safety uses a valuation schedule to calculate the fees, based on square foot formulas. It is a rather complicated process, because different uses of buildings have different valuations. The fee schedule in use today has been in use since 1998. Although project costs have increased, which has subsequently increased valuation, the fees associated with those valuations have not increased. He explained the lower the value of the project, the higher the percent of the fees, in relationship to the project. On the flip side, high value projects have lower fees in relationship to the project. If the Board and stakeholders choose to stay with this fee structure, we will need to look at revising the unit costs for the IRC and IBC. If square foot unit values are inaccurate, the fees being charged are not being assessed on the entire value of the project. Square foot unit values come RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Estes Park Board of Appeals 3 February 5, 2015 Board Room, Estes Park Town Hall from a national standard that can be modified regionally, if needed. To be equitable, the numbers have to be accurate. CBO Birchfield stated Estes Park has extremely low permit fees compared to other jurisdictions. He would like to see permit fees reflect the true value of the project, and would appreciate a process that is easier to calculate than the current fee schedule. This would allow the customer to be able to estimate fees prior to issuance of the permit. For example, the fee could be $1 per square foot plus $.50 per square foot for plan review. Multiple inspections and/or reviews would have additional charges. Flat fees could be charged for over-the-counter permits. CBO Birchfield stated the current system is very difficult to understand. While other jurisdictions have implemented impact fees (school, road, fire, etc.), Estes Park has not taken that route. The consideration of impact fees would need to come from the elected officials. CBO Birchfield stated he would prefer to use unit cost, with additional fees for more complicated projects. Many building plans require engineering due to the increased design wind speed, and a possible option could be to lower review fees since plans are stamped by engineers. He would appreciate feedback from the Board concerning ways to apply fees. He stated the revenue from permit fees is deposited into the Town's general fund. Member Klein requested examples of fee structures from other jurisdictions. CBO Birchfield stated he will ask the elected officials where they stand on the matter and bring it back to the Board of Appeals. Public comment None STAFF AND MEMBER DISCUSSION CBO Birchfield reviewed the code books with Board members, explaining what the symbols and formatting means. Many of the changes deal with national standards, so the Board and staff need to be cognizant of those standards. As new codes are adopted, they will reference more recent additions of the same standards. When an amendment is proposed, care needs to be given to revise all portions of the code dealing with that amendment. Local amendments need to align with the Fire Code, sewer requirements established by the sanitation districts, etc. A lot of thought and research by staff goes into the local amendments. Chair Spooner stated he would be interested in hearing staff's issues with the current codes and local amendments. There was discussion between CBO Birchfield and the Board. Comments included, but were not limited to: once the local amendments are adopted, the document will be burned onto CDs and given to contractors, a clean copy of the local amendments should be posted to the Town website; out of respect of people's time, meetings will begin and end on time, with items requiring additional discussion being continued to either an additional meeting or the next regularly scheduled meeting; if additional meetings are required. Board members will be given updates at the next regularly scheduled Board of Appeals meeting, and discussion among the Board and staff will occur before a recommendation is made; if members of the public would prefer to provide written comments rather than speaking in public, letters can be sent to CBO Birchfield at wbirchfield@estes.org, and the comments will be provided to the Board of Appeals and the Town Trustees; it is important that all that desire to be heard are provided that opportunity. Once the codes are adopted, the Estes Valley Library will have a copy of the code books for reference use (no check out). There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:32 p.m. JohnySpooner, Chair Karen Thompson, Retotxling Secretary