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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 13813ORDINANCE NUMBER ~ ~J U I AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE FORT WORTH PLUMBING CODE, BY PROVIDING FOR AN ADJUSTMENT IN THE FEES CHARGED FOR THE INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS BY APPROVED THIRD PARTY ORGANIZATIONS, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF, PROVIDING THAT THIS ORDINANCE SHALL BE CUMULATIVE, PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE, PROVIDING A SAVINGS CLAUSE, PROVIDING FOR PUBLICATION IN PAMPHLET FORM, PROVIDING FOR PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER, AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, the City of Fort Worth has heretofore enacted provisions allowing for the plan review and inspections of construction projects by separate third party organizations, WHEREAS, the City of Fort Worth wishes to provide a fair and equitable permit fee schedule for those individuals taking advantage of the third party option in order to ensure that fees do not exceed the cost of providing such services, WHEREAS, the City of Fort Worth now wishes to amend the fees involved for field inspections services, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS, AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1 Section 26-2 of the Code of the Crty of Fort Worth (1986) is amended by inserting new amendments as follows. SECTION COS *Section C05.2. changed to read as follows. C05.2 Permit fees. The fee for each permit shall be as set forth in Table C05.2. ~.<.. Any person obtaining a permit application required by this code shall, at the time of filing, pay a permit and anon-refundable application fee as required by this section for the installation, relocation or replacement of any of the listed items. Exceptions: 1 Where the fees for new structures and additions to structures have been collected on a building permit, the permit fee is not required but the permit application shall be filed by the person doing the work before work is commenced. 2 Where these fees are being invoiced monthly and the account is past due, a penalty and/or interest charge as prescribed by the ~unsdiction, shall be assessed. The above assessed fee and delinquent payment shall be paid before additional permits will be issued or additional inspections performed. ; 3 Buildings or structures owned and occupied by a Federal, State, or County entity on property owned by the Federal, State, or County entity shall be exempt from the permit fees. This exception does not apply to public school distracts or county community colleges. 4 Work by non-City personnel on property under the control of the City of Fort Worth shall be exempt from the permit fees only if the work is for action under a contract approved by City Council with notes m the contract packages stating the fee is waived. 5 Work by City personnel on property under the control of the City of Fort Worth shall be exempt from the permit fees only if the application is accompanied by a copy of the work order for the project. 6 When the project is to be inspected by an approved third party organization as described m Section C08, the permit fee shall be reduced by 90%. Exemption or reduction of the permit fees under this section shall not waive the requirements to pay a full investigation fee for doing work without a permit as required under Section C05.3 *Section C05.3.2. add a second paragraph to read ase ollows. Use of the third party plan review or inspection option, will not reduce or lower the investigation fee required by this section. SECTION 2. This article shall be cumulative of all provisions of ordinances and of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas (1986), as amended, except where the provisions of this article are m direct conflict with the provisions of such ordinances and such Code, m which event conflicting provisions of such ordinances and such Code are hereby repealed. SECTION 3 Any person, firm or corporation violating any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000 00) for all violations involving fire safety, or public health and sanitation and shall be fined not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500 00) for all other violations of this ordinance. Each day or any portion thereof dunng which any violation of this ordinance occurs or continues shall be deemed a separate offense and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable as herein provided. .SECTION 4 It is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, and phrases of this ordinance are severable, and, if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, or section of this ordinance shall be declared void, ineffective, or unconstitutional by the valid judgment or final decree of any court of competent ~unsdiction, such voidness, ineffectiveness, or unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and sections of this ordinance, since the same would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorporation m this ordinance of any such void, ineffective, or unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, or section. SECTION 5 This ordinance constitutes a digest and revision of the Plumbing Code of the Crty of Fort Worth, as provided in Section 2, Chapter XXV, and Section 9, Chapter XXVII, of the Charter of the Crty of Fort Worth. The Development Department of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, is hereby authorized to publish this ordinance m pamphlet form for general distribution among the public, and the operative provisions of this ordinance, as so published, shall be admissible m evidence m all courts without further proof than the production thereof, as provided in Chapter XXV, Section 3, of the Charter of the City of Fort Worth, Texas. SECTION 6 The City Secretary of the City of Fort Worth, is hereby directed to publish the caption, penalty clause, and effective date of this ordinance for two (2) days in the official newspaper of the City of Fort Worth, Texas as authorized by Section 2, Chapter XXV of the Charter of the City of Fort Worth, Texas and by Section 52 013 (a) of the Texas Local Government Code. SECTION 7 This ordinance shall be in full force and effect June 3, 1999, and it is so ordained. C~,^.5-~~.-( ~- C~ Assistant City Attorney Date a ~o ~ ~} 9 g Adopted. a S 1 ~ 4 Effective: ~ ~- ~ l 9 g 5-14-99 City of Fort Worth, Texas ~11~Ayar And ~~,aunc~l ~,ammun~cA~t~an DAl`E REFERENCE NUMBER LOG NAME PAGE 5/25/99 G-12568 06FEES 1 of 2 sua~ECr FEES FOR THIRD-PARTY PLAN REVIEW AND INSPECTION SERVICES RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached ordinances which specify the plan review and inspection fees, and authorize a reduction in the fee amounts for the usage of third-party plan review or field inspection services DISCUSSION The City Council recently approved revisions to the City Code to permit the use of approved third-party organizations for the plan review and field inspection of construction projects Along with that approval, the City Council waived all permit fees associated with those projects for a period of 90-days That time frame will expire on June 2, 1999 In an effort to continue support of the construction industry, it is recommended that a continued reduction in fees be authorized in accordance with the following 1 Plan review fees will be calculated separately from the permit fees, and the plan review fees will be totally waived when athird-party plan review is used 2. The remainder of the permit fee, minus the plan review fee, will be considered a separate fee, and said fees will be reduced by 90% when third-party inspections are used 3 This proposal does not introduce a fee increase, rather it divides the fees into a plan review and field inspection quantity for determining what amounts will be reduced depending upon the third- party services used Under the current program, staff is attempting to review all third-party work to ensure correct code interpretation and enforcement. Once the third-party organizations are released from "probation", staff will be able to reduce its oversight to a quality control level of about 10% to 20% review and follow-up The fees that should be charged would need to be enough to cover this quality control level and the administrative paperwork. Since this project is still new, and since all of the third-party work is being checked during this initial period, there is no data upon which to determine an appropriate fee The proposals here merely represent a starting point. After enough data is collected, a more precise fee allocation and percentage would then be presented to the City Council Staff believes that enough data may be collected by the October 1999 budget. In accordance with the 1998-1999 budget, the expected revenues projected for the Development Department were $5,982,100 While revenues are usually heavier during the summer, if this amount were divided equally, by this mid-year point we should have collected $2,991,050 Actual revenues at the mid-year were $3,309,154, a surplus of $318,104 City of Fort Worth, Texas ~1~Ayar And Councl( ammun~cAt~an C DATE 5/25/99 REFERENCE NUMBER G-12568 LOG NAME 06FEES PAGE 2 of 2 suB~EC-r FEES FOR THIRD-PARTY PLAN REVIEW AND INSPECTION SERVICES Based on revenue projections of departmental revenue collections exceeding budgeted amounts, implementation of the proposed third-party inspection fee structure should have a minimal net effect on departmental revenues FISCAL INFORMATION/CERTIFICATION The Finance Director certifies that, as a result of increased revenue projections, the proposed fee waivers should have a minimal impact on revenue projections. MGj .a Submitted for City Manager's FUND ACCOUNT CENTER AMOUNT CITY SECRETARY Office by: (to) APPROVED Mike Groomer 6140 CITY COUNCIL Originating Department Head: . MAY ` ~5 X999 Ann Kovich 8901 (from) ! Additional Information Contact: ~ l~`t~~ Cite Secretary of the City of Fort Wo:th d'exaa Ann Kovich 8901 , A~cpted ~rd~nance No. 13__ x_13 Adopted Ordinance No, l3~ ( ~ A~rp~ed Jrdinance boo 1~~~-