Pickerington facing more inspections
New fee planned for smaller home upgrades
Friday, April 10, 2009 3:07 AM
By Mary Beth Lane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Pickerington homeowners who install a water heater, furnace, windows or similar improvements face a new inspection fee, as the city conforms with a statewide residential building code that took effect three years ago.
Big alterations such as room additions, decks and refinished basements already require a city building-code inspection permit, which costs $85. Now, more-minor home modifications will require inspection.
The city building department started the new inspections Feb. 1 and was prepared to charge the same $85 fee but delayed imposing it after some City Council members said it was too high. The new inspections are free for now.
''The citizens, in view of the economic times, needed to get a little more bang for the buck,'' said Councilman Michael Sabatino.
He proposes instead that residential property owners pay $25 for inspections of replacement water heaters, furnaces and air-conditioning systems, windows, roofs and siding and, possibly, a higher, as-yet-unspecified fee for more-complicated projects.
Sabatino said he plans to ask the public safety committee to approve the new inspections and fees at its April 22 meeting and send the package to the full council for a vote on May 5.
Residents learned of the delay in imposing the new inspection fees from an insert mailed with their utility bills. Some did not know that new fees were even afoot.
Pickerington is broadening the list of what home modifications require an inspection permit because it wants to conform to the state residential building code that took effect in 2006.
Before, Ohio didn't have a statewide, standardized residential building code. Now, inspectors in communities across Ohio will check for the same things in new and remodeled homes.
The new code establishes minimum standards for the construction and installation of major components. Any local government that wants to enforce building standards must use the state's code, which requires inspections for certain home improvements that didn't require them before.
Columbus and Groveport are among the central Ohio communities that have already added to the list of what must be inspected, said Don Phillips, who became Pickerington's chief building official last year and began reshaping the city building code to fit the state code. Inspections for minor modifications in Columbus cost $75; the fee is higher for more-complicated jobs.
The new inspections and fees being imposed on homeowners are not meant to be a cash cow for Pickerington but rather a ''break-even'' way to pay the inspectors, whose workload is increasing with what the state now requires, Phillips said.
mlane@dispatch.com
New fee planned for smaller home upgrades
Friday, April 10, 2009 3:07 AM
By Mary Beth Lane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Pickerington homeowners who install a water heater, furnace, windows or similar improvements face a new inspection fee, as the city conforms with a statewide residential building code that took effect three years ago.
Big alterations such as room additions, decks and refinished basements already require a city building-code inspection permit, which costs $85. Now, more-minor home modifications will require inspection.
The city building department started the new inspections Feb. 1 and was prepared to charge the same $85 fee but delayed imposing it after some City Council members said it was too high. The new inspections are free for now.
''The citizens, in view of the economic times, needed to get a little more bang for the buck,'' said Councilman Michael Sabatino.
He proposes instead that residential property owners pay $25 for inspections of replacement water heaters, furnaces and air-conditioning systems, windows, roofs and siding and, possibly, a higher, as-yet-unspecified fee for more-complicated projects.
Sabatino said he plans to ask the public safety committee to approve the new inspections and fees at its April 22 meeting and send the package to the full council for a vote on May 5.
Residents learned of the delay in imposing the new inspection fees from an insert mailed with their utility bills. Some did not know that new fees were even afoot.
Pickerington is broadening the list of what home modifications require an inspection permit because it wants to conform to the state residential building code that took effect in 2006.
Before, Ohio didn't have a statewide, standardized residential building code. Now, inspectors in communities across Ohio will check for the same things in new and remodeled homes.
The new code establishes minimum standards for the construction and installation of major components. Any local government that wants to enforce building standards must use the state's code, which requires inspections for certain home improvements that didn't require them before.
Columbus and Groveport are among the central Ohio communities that have already added to the list of what must be inspected, said Don Phillips, who became Pickerington's chief building official last year and began reshaping the city building code to fit the state code. Inspections for minor modifications in Columbus cost $75; the fee is higher for more-complicated jobs.
The new inspections and fees being imposed on homeowners are not meant to be a cash cow for Pickerington but rather a ''break-even'' way to pay the inspectors, whose workload is increasing with what the state now requires, Phillips said.
mlane@dispatch.com
