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| Is there another layer of additional scrutiny that we can apply to folks who construct infrastructure to insure the county and residents don't have big bills to pay and problems years after such infrastructure is constructed? The answer is YES. |
One of the things I mentioned in last Thursday's Committee of the Whole Meeting was that we need more scrutiny applied to the projects that are built and that we allow to be permitted.
I was pleased that one of my counterparts agreed that this is necessary. It is necessary.
We need to enforce our codes and be fair to builders---and we are---but we have to make sure all ordinances are followed and things permitted are built as designed.
Otherwise, we will continue to have unintended consequences that homeowners and the county will have to address.
From stormwater ponds not built according to the way they were designed and permitted, (look at the issues in Beulah last week) to lift stations that fail costing residents hundreds of thousands of dollars, to platted subdivisions that are not graded according to plan and cause flooding on surrounding properties--we are racing from crisis to crisis fixing these issues that are symptomatic of a larger problem: insufficient oversight and scrutiny of the projects that are permitted once they are built.
I recently had lunch with a contractor locally who has a well-regarded, established company doing construction and maintenance throughout the southeast. He has about 60 employees and his company is wildly successful. "Jeff, we build a retaining wall and we follow the rules. We get the permit, we build it as it is designed--but nobody comes to verify that we built it according to the specifications of the engineer of record. It just gets signed off, and nobody comes to look at it. They would not even know what to look for if they did come out" he stated flatly. "The county should make the engineer of record on these projects sign an affidavit stating they inspected the project after construction and that it has been built according to the plans."
I like that idea, and we are going to look at doing just that.
1. County staff scrutinizes plans to insure they meet code.
2. Approval is sought and obtained to construct
3. County inspects items built
4. Engineer of record signs off that what was built matches what was submitted to county
5. If post construction-issues arise based upon faulty/flawed construction--builder and engineer of record will be called to task
The problems that we are facing today are self-inflicted. We have allowed things to be built, land to be cleared, and subdivisions to be platted where the grading plans have not been followed--and now we are scrambling to pick up the pieces. When we have to come up with solutions for homeowners who have faced tremendous issues with improperly constructed infrastructure in subdivisions that affect nearby homeowners-this is problematic and it should NOT be a regular, recurring situation.
Sadly-----it has been.
So we have to do better. And we will.
I'll be bringing a plan to address this issue.
3 comments:
Commissioner Bergosh, the towering sand piles you see dumped, and ready to disperse over the Beach, post Ivan, came from the intercoastal and Innerarity channel that was impassable after Ivan pushed it full of sand.
The Army Corps of Engineers recognized the need immediately to get the channel and intercoastal opened up, and, if memory serves, the dredging equipment came from USACE Mobile and the work order and permitting came from Jacksonville (which, unbelievably, has jurisdiction over our waterways from the other coast of Florida).
I can't remember which contractor hauled the sand over. It might have been Roads Inc, but I'm stressing I'm calling this all up from memory from research we were all doing a year and a half ago.
Michael McCormack is the point person on this and the caretaker of most of the documentation.
A group of us spent many hours in the County Attorney's office going through box after box of documents on Perdido beaches to locate what should have been the necessary permitting, financial docs, etc. Most of the boxes were of easements granted to the County a few year later, when Gene Valentino's office was getting majority buy-in from the condos on the beach so that he could fix their erosion problems with nourishment. What his office didn't know was that it wouldn't have been nourishment, but renourishment.
Once we had gone through all the boxes that day, we asked "why wasn't this and this in here?" The answer was that some of the boxes might have been in another office. That they didn't have access to. Things that make you go hmmm. There's a chance the documentation doesn't exist; this was action taken during an emergency and I'm sure there was a LOT that happened that didn't go on paper. The paper need was overwhelming as it was. And things can be done in a time of emergency to legally and justifiably end around standard process.
If you get the same party line answer on why that wasn't taxpayer nourishment that we did, it will be "that wasn't nourishment it was dune restoration." Which is just one of the semantic and legal games that have been employed to keep the public of the beaches that their taxes have paid to maintain. The public has paid to nourish Perdido Key beaches. They need to be opened to the public.
--Melissa Pino
Sounds proactive.
In my opinion all the noise about the bridges not being repaired doesn't make sense. Commissioner Barry has been replacing them at the rate of about one by one and if had several out out the same times the detours would be unbearable and unsafe.
I think when the bridges ask by Underhill and Mike Hill was put on the agenda is was a measly political attempt to fool the masses. You had already as a board vetted, voted and prioritized the priorities. Even Joy Jones said it might affect the prior board action.
We also don't have a problem ECAT and Economic development incentives either.
I wonder if Commissioner Barry is even going to try to correct anyone or just do what he does -- Gets the job done.
I could not agree more on needing more oversight that subdivisions are built according to plans. Many of us in Beulah are suffering the consequences of insufficient oversight. I live in a group of three homes now surrounded by DR Horton homes. On all three sides of us, the builder built up the back of the lots adjoining us - so that we were in effect in a bowl. My husband says the problem really started when they built the subdivision roads too high, so they had to grade the lots higher than they should have been. We have had to fight this at every turn and the inspector has tried to work out solutions on two sides. But now, on the third side, he told the project manager NOT to lay sod because the grading was not right. Guess what they did over the weekend? Sod. The inspector says he will tell them to take the sod back up or they will not get certificates of occupancy for the four houses. We'll see what happens, but I think we probably need more inspectors with so much building going on.
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