Palm Beach to reinforce rules requiring construction sites be secured prior to storm events

With hurricane season underway, the Palm Beach Town Council has taken steps to ensure that construction sites will be secure if a storm were to approach.

During their meeting June 14 at Town Hall, council members directed town staff to provide contractors with copies of a town ordinance related to emergency measures for storm events when they request a construction permit.

Town rules require contractors to secure, store or remove all construction materials —including roof tiles and debris — on all building and construction sites when the National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center or appropriate weather agency declares a tropical storm watch or warning, or a hurricane watch or warning, for any portion of Palm Beach County.

Construction rules: Palm Beach to maintain early morning maintenance schedule despite new construction rules

More Palm Beach restrictions: Palm Beach adds more restrictions on construction and landscaping activity during holidays

Loose construction materials can pose safety hazards during storms, as they can be thrown around in high winds, town officials said.

Private contractors working on projects within the town are advised of the town's storm rules when they receive construction permits, Town Manager Kirk Blouin said, while the town's Public Works Department coordinates with contractors on site security for town projects.

Not all contractors, however, work quickly to secure their construction sites before storms.

"Some contractors are great to work with," Blouin said. "They'll button things up right away. They don't leave anything to chance. Others wait until the last minute, and they scramble. If it's a significant event that's occurring in general, you get more compliance. But even then, we have town staff that have to chase down these contractors."

Concerns about unsecured construction sites prompted council member Julie Araskog to bring the issue to the council's attention.

Araskog said she was driving in town after the National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm warnings June 2 for a system that was developing off Florida's southwest coast — it later became Tropical Storm Alex — and she noticed some construction sites with big piles of dirt or heavy tiles sitting outside.

These sites fall under the town's ordinance mandating that construction materials be secured during storm events, she noted, and contractors needed to be made aware of their responsibilities for protecting their sites before the arrival of a tropical storm or hurricane.

"We need to say to them that they need to do a better job," Araskog said. "This is not a wait-and-see approach."

Planning and Zoning Director Wayne Bergman said representatives from his department as well as those from Public Works and Code Enforcement routinely stop by construction sites before a storm's arrival to hand out copies of the town's ordinance related to emergency storm measures.

But he agreed that additional steps could be taken to reinforce town rules.

"Looking at our internal (planning and zoning) operations, this ordinance is available to contractors," he said. "We haven't been stapling it to permits. Perhaps during hurricane season, we should. We can do a better job within our department trying to get the message out."

For public construction projects, the town acts early to secure construction sites in case of a storm, Public Works Director Paul Brazil said.

"We make the call very early on, because we need to get out of the road right away," he said. "It's written into our contract, so (contractors) will secure those sites, and they do."

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach to reinforce pre-storm rules for construction site security