Rollingwood City Council continued to work toward updating sections of the city code Dec. 21, an undertaking the council has been pursuing throughout 2016.
The council adopted the following code amendments in December.
Home businesses
To combat a situation in which a resident was living in one house but trying to operate a business out of another house the resident also owned, the council voted to amend the section of the city code relating to home offices.
“We’re trying to address one particular issue with somebody who bought a house for the specific purpose of running a home office out of it and living two blocks away,” Alderman Joe Basham said. “That is not what we want Rollingwood to be. If someone wants to run an office out of their actual home and it doesn’t cause problems with the neighbors, I think we’re fine with that.”
Council removed a requirement that limited residents from employing persons who do not reside in the home.
Emergency and utility permit
The council voted to establish a new Emergency and Utility Construction Permit, relating to the installation, relocation or modification of water, sewer, gas or electrical conductors or fixtures to the exterior of a house.
The new permit has a lower fee that better reflects the cost of processing the permit and does not require the property owner to notify his or her neighbors of construction, making the process easier, building official Mike Alexander said.
Building permit renewal fees
The council established a $100 renewal fee for building permits. Building permits expire after a year, and builders have 15 days to renew their permit if construction is not complete.
“With the houses being built now, permits frequently expire because they take more than a year to build,” Alexander said. “We used to have a permit renewal fee of $100, and all this does is re-establish that fee. It cost the city approximately $100 to process a permit, so this allows the city to recapture [its] money.”
Building permit revocation
A new code amendment allows the city to take action to revoke a building permit if work on the property has stopped for an eight-week period. The permit holder would be able to challenge the revocation and reclaim the permit if he or she could explain why work has been halted, Alexander said.
“Currently, we do not have any provisions in the ordinance to revoke the permit if they stop working on the house,” he said. “There’s a distinction between a permit expiring at the end of 12 months and when they abandon the project. The revocation would force that issue so we wouldn’t get complaints from neighbors about a house just sitting there.”
Prior to the change, a permit could only be revoked if the building official deemed that construction was in violation of the city’s building code or the proposed site plan, Alexander said.
