Bill Spinner: City's building department processes need to be streamlined

With the dramatic increase in inflation along with the ongoing rise in interest rates, it is imperative for Jacksonville to take action to streamline the local building department procedures. An efficient permitting process will lead to more affordable housing, maintain or enhance construction safety, and substantially increase local tax revenue.

With construction costs at all-time highs, we cannot afford unnecessary delays caused by city government. The National Association of Home Builders reports that regulations and delays imposed by all levels of government add 23 percent to the average cost of a new home.

Putting that percentage towards “red tape” — not bricks and mortar — commonly eliminates an extra bathroom or bedroom as the project becomes more expensive.

Many architects, builders, tenants and property owners in Jacksonville are frustrated as permitting often takes longer than the actual construction. It is common for civil engineers to charge more for city permitting than their design drawings. City reviews of small private projects are often not cost-effective or good for the public.

A $50,000 job has to wait behind a $50 million project, which may take months to get review comments back. High costs and delays associated with the inefficiency in the building department substantially penalizes the poor, who must pay a higher share of their income for housing. If they choose to go ahead and build at the inflated costs, they may have to choose lower-quality materials that may be less energy efficient and have higher maintenance costs.

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Streamlining does not mean cutting corners or shirking public safety. In fact, municipal oversight is almost always redundant and does not necessarily lead to enhanced safety.

There are multiple levels of safety review in the construction industry outside the municipal review. The first level of protection for the consumer and insurance industry lies with the private contracts and warranties between designers, contractors, private inspectors, and owners. Professional and state licensing and oversight of contractors, engineers, and architects provide the next (and best) level.

The municipal plan review and field inspection process provide the third level of protection, but it is arguably redundant and comes at a substantial cost, particularly when it is delayed and inefficient. It is imposed on all projects while being of questionable value.

Does it make sense to double-check professionally licensed architects and engineers (who have several years of formal education and apprenticeship before they are rigorously tested for their license)? This is hard to justify as most city reviewers do not have similar credentials. It's not realistic to blindly accept that building departments are protecting the public more than the professionals whose licenses, reputations, and livelihoods are on the line.

Permitting delays, along with higher design fees, are also counterproductive to the goal of safety. They can enhance safety problems by driving work underground to unlicensed contractors, who tend to be uninsured and build without the code or scrutiny of inspections.

These jobs are often dangerous and susceptible to collapse, flooding and fires. Without a permit, these projects are not assessed increased values by the local property appraiser or put on the tax rolls. Local citizens must pick up the tab for this underground black market economy. In the end, the purported beneficiary of city oversight, meaning “the public,” is actually harmed by the rising costs of overregulation and time delays.

Building department delays reduce or delay building sales. This reduces or delays the collection of property, utility and payroll taxes. The construction industry spends over $3 billion per year in Jacksonville. If only 5 percent of this volume is unpermitted, the city’s cumulative losses amount to $150 million left off the yearly property tax rolls. A permitting delay of just 30 days costs Jacksonville city tax revenue a conservative $1 million per month.

Mayoral candidate LeAnna Gutierrez Cumber stated that she supports making the regulatory processes more efficient to bring more certainty to the real estate and construction industry. She will get a lot of votes if she has a good plan to turn this antiquated and unproductive process around.

Mayor Peyton attacked similar problems by setting up committees with both private and public sector stakeholders. The process was a success, streamlined with an emphasis on customer service, timelines and competition to incentivize departments.

One great idea that continued from these committees was the privatizing of plan reviews and inspections to create competition for service. For a while, this helped those contractors that could afford private companies and take advantage of the time savings. An additional benefit to the public of private plan reviews and inspections is that private providers are licensed and insured, so if there is a problem, they are responsible — not covered under the sovereign immunity clause like the city.

Insurance companies prefer private providers for this very reason, as there is real accountability, unlike with the municipal plan review and field inspections.  

Unfortunately, the privatization of plan review and inspections is not being properly implemented, further driving up costs. Instead of offering a streamlined solution, even projects that have undergone private plan reviews and inspections are required to wait, experiencing undue delays as the city reviews the work.

While Florida statutes provide a 20-day period for the city to review a privately approved project, an overburdened building department often is able to extend this time frame if it cites even one minor thing, which sends the project back to the bottom of the pile for the 20-day clock to restart. A $50 item could end up causing a $5 million project to be held up for months. Housing prices, city tax coffers, contractors, landlords and tenants all suffer from this lack of urgency.

The humanitarian goal of affordable housing, along with the opportunity to grow the city's tax base, are both achievable. However, we must elevate local thinking and endeavor a smart solution. There is a balance of regulation, professional judgement, common sense and managerial competence that can bring confidence to investors and create prosperity for Jacksonville residents.

Bill Spinner, commercial builder developer, Jacksonville

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bill Spinner: City's building department processes must be streamlined