Grant County may change permit prices

EPHRATA - Grant County may adopt a new assessment rate for certain buildings after a resident complaint.

The commissioners discussed how the building cost permits are determined after John Wright, Zip Truck Lines' president and owner, complained about a warehouse he intended to build. 

Wright wrote in an email he was building a tarp-covered, metal-framed warehouse on Road N Northeast, adding it to a complex of six warehouses, an office and a repair shop.

"We applied for a building permit under our corporation of JL Ventures LLC," he wrote. "We paid $2,000 for the permit and thought that was the total price until we were notified that we owed another $4,274.50."

Ray Audet, a Department of Community Development building inspector, told the commissioners the contractor was informed the $2,000 was a deposit to get the review started. Audet met with the commissioners recently to discuss the email, and how prices are determined for building permits.

Audet explained the cost of building permits is based on the International Code Council's "building valuation data." The table provides the average construction costs per square foot. 

"When we adopted the fee structure ... we just took the lowest (priced) one," he said. "So we took that column and tried to average everything out, and, of course, modified things a little bit."

For example, Audet said, the recommended assessment value for a one- or two-family residence was about $101 per square foot of construction. The department lowered it to $90 per square foot of construction to reflect the cost of construction in the area.

The department takes the estimated value of the construction, and determines the price to review the permit based on their prices.

"The storage buildings ended up being a little more complex typically," he said. "Typically, the storage structures here, because of the variety of things we can have in them and the sizes, we took that amount and rounded it up to $55 (per square foot of construction.)"

After Commissioner Richard Stevens asked how much a permit to build a hay storage building would cost, Audet explained it costs $10 per square foot. The code council groups items such as carports, garages, and agriculture buildings as "Group U" recommending an assessment of about $40 per square foot.

"We broke it down into more categories to more accurately reflect (the costs)," he said. "You can't take a group U, which is a deck, and charge $40 a square foot for that. We can't do some of those other items that way. It's just not realistic."

Audet said the department has stayed close to charging 1 percent of the value of the construction.

Stevens pointed out the cost of Wright's building was much lower than what the building department was estimating it would cost. 

Audet agreed, saying per the county's ordinance, the warehouse would be categorized as a low-hazard storage building, with a value of $55 per square foot.

"Is that where it should be? Not for what it's costing them," he said.

Stevens asked if the department could add a category to the utility, agriculture and accessory.

"I think we can," Audet said. "We could even add it to the storage maybe as a sub-category ... but we maybe want to limit it to a certain occupancy group ... If we want to do that for the membrane structures I think it's really appropriate, in my own opinion, in the (storage) categories, but we may be want to limit it to that."

He said people could take the tarp-covered structures and use them in assembly occupancy groups, such as theaters and nightclubs.

"A while back, Big Bend Community College had a proposal to construct a membrane building that was going to include tennis courts and I forget what else, but it was a huge assembly area," Audet said. "That's fine, but then the review for that is maybe even more complex because of the membrane structure than it would be if they were building it out of wood or steel."

Stevens said it would answer the immediate problem.

 "I guess what I would like to do is talk it over with (Director) Dave (Nelson) when he gets back," Audet said. "Because the basic components of the building, it's still steel frame ... It's big steel frames. It's not the little steel frame, like the little deals we get from Costco ... and they use the big ecology blocks, so it still has a substantial foundation to it, and there can still be some complications looking at fire flow."

Stevens didn't have a suggestion on the price, saying they simply want to be fair.

"We don't want to be charging $55 for a square foot, when they're building it for $13 (per square foot,)" he said.