Chris Wheat, a senior building inspector with the Leander Building Inspection Department, uses a new digital tablet to help streamline the inspection process. | Photo by David Weaver[/caption]

The city of Leander has issued more than 1,000 permits for new homes this year—setting a new record for the city—and the number is still climbing.

City staffers said by the end of 2014 the number of permits could exceed the city's total permits issued from 2009–12. The demand is leaving staffers struggling to keep up and planning to reorganize the Leander Building Inspection Department.

Homebuilders must obtain permits from the department before starting construction on new homes in the city limits. City building inspectors must follow up with dozens of inspections or re-inspections at different stages of each homebuilding project, Senior Building Inspector Linda Alger said.

"We see [more building inspections] coming like a wave," Alger said. "We're looking out over the horizon saying: Yes, [the pace] is not going to get any better right now."

City leaders have already responded to the demand by upgrading the inspection department to digital records keeping and creating new staff positions. Leander City Council approved the city's 2014–15 budget Sept. 22, but City Manager Kent Cagle said he hopes to amend that budget to create at least one more building inspector position. The city also plans to move the permits and inspection department out from under the Leander Fire Department to operate as part of a newly reconstituted Leander Department of Development Services.

"When this calendar year is over, we'll have issued somewhere around 1,100 single-family permits," Cagle said. "We're not really staffed right now to deal with that. We need help."

Record growth

From 2009–11 the city of Leander issued builders a total of 943 single-family housing permits. In 2012 the city issued 418 permits, and in 2013 the city issued 666 permits. As of Oct. 31, the city's issued permits in 2014 had reached 1,016.

Cagle said the city expected more permits in 2014 because of the approval of new subdivisions, but staffers also expected new permit requests to start decreasing in the fall after the summer building season. Instead permit demand has increased, and October's total of 123 issued permits makes October a record-setting month for Leander, he said.

"We're thinking: OK, what's going to happen in the spring?" Cagle said. "And then we have not had a lot of commercial development, and we get the feeling that's coming as well."

Cagle said single-family housing development is booming not in specific areas but throughout the city, such as in Northside Meadows northwest of Old FM 2243 and US 183, the Villas at Vista Ridge on Bagdad Road and Travisso on FM 1431. Staffers believe even more permits are on the way for new neighborhoods in northeast Leander and along Ronald Reagan Boulevard, he said.

In mid-October construction workers with D.R. Horton were laboring on dozens of new homes in Magnolia Creek on Sonny Drive. After initial site preparations, a homebuilder often prepares and finishes building a house within four months, D.R. Horton Superintendent Jonathan Lollar said.

"We had 30 [homes] sold before we even started," Lollar said. "Once we drop lumber to start framing, we [finish] in about 45 days."

Inspection changes

In June city staffers began testing a digital inspections system hosted by MyPermitNow.org. On Sept. 1 the department fully converted to the digital system, which replaces clipboards and sheets of paper with tablets that have audio and text note-taking software.

"This makes it go a lot faster," Alger said. "Once I hit the 'Save' button on this, it's done. It gets sent electronically, and [the builder] gets the notice that says the inspection passed or failed."

But permit staff and inspectors are still struggling to keep up with the rate of work.

"We're doing too many inspections per inspector," Cagle said. "A lot of days we won't get them all done. They have to be rolled over to the next day, and then the next day's [load is] bigger."

In the 2013–14 fiscal year the department added two positions, expanding the department to include a plan reviewer, two full-time clerks, three full-time building inspectors and a chief building inspector. The 2014–15 budget includes a new receptionist position.

But the city needs to fill several existing positions before staffers can budget for another inspector, Cagle said. Even then the inspectors will continue to focus only on housing projects; the city hires an outside firm to make inspections of larger developments such as schools and commercial projects, he said.

Lack of available office space in the Leander Fire Department building on Sonny Drive also restrains the permit and inspections office, Alger said.

"We had to build an office in our hallway for our other inspector," she said.

Cagle said the Leander Building Inspection Department will become part of the Department of Development Services after the city completes construction of a new fire station on San Gabriel Parkway. The fire station will relocate from its current address next to Pat Bryson Municipal Hall, leaving space to be renovated for the development services office.

That department will be led by Tom Yantis, who is serving as both director of development services and in his new role of assistant city manager. Cagle said the city could move the department under Yantis' purview in 2014 or may wait until 2015 when the city can finish restructuring the development services department.

"It may take a couple of years before this is all done," Cagle said. "When everybody's in the same building and [under the] same roof—a one-stop shop—it's going to be better for our developers. It will be better internally for our workings and then externally for our customers."