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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA - 08021988 - I.O.6 _ w TD� BOARD OF SUPERVISORS I • D• 6 FROM: Contra INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE 0)sta DATE: July 25, 1988 wJ* SUBJECT: Notification to Builders of Fire District Requirements SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AM JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Approve the attached notice to applicants for building permits advising the applicant that building projects must be inspected and approved by the appropriate fire agency prior to final inspection by the County Building Department. 2. Direct the County Building Inspector to implement the notification procedure by providing applicants for building permits with a copy of the notice in appropriate cases and requiring applicants to sign a statement attesting to the fact that they received a copy of, the notice. 3 . Approve the attached report from the County Administrator recommending that no action be taken to transfer fire district staff to the Building Inspection Department to perform plan checking for all fire districts. 4. Request the Fire Chiefs Association and Building Inspector to report back to the Board of Supervisors in July; 1989 on the degree to which the notification procedure has been successful in eliminating instances where a builder obtained a building permit without the prior review and approval by the appropriate fire agency. 5 . Request the Chief of each Board-governed fire district in the County to make a presentation to the City Council of each city within their district indicating the' steps which have been taken by the Board of Supervisors to ensure that applicants for building permits are aware of the need for fire district clearance of some projects, and urging that each city consider a similar procedure to ensure that the appropriate fire agency has an opportunity to review and approve building plans before building permits are issued. BACKGROUND: On March 15, 1988, at the request of Supervisor Torlakson, the Board referred to our Committee the need to provide complete and clear notification to applicants for building permits of the CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X_ YES SIGNATURE: _ RECOMMEN ATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR X RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROV OT ER 4 SIGNATURE S . Sunne W. McA ak Tom Torlakson ACTION OF BOARD ON. August , 1988 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT II AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TARN AYES: NOES AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. cc: County Administrator ATTESTED —.."- W,0-4 a /9001 Building Inspector Chiefs of all Board-Governed PHIL B CHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Fire Districts SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Terry Curtola, BIA BY ,DEPUTY M382/7-83 Page . 2 need for approval of their building plans by the appropriate fire agency. Staff . from the County Administrator' s Office has worked., with the fire districts, particularly Consolidated and Riverview, and with the Building Inspector, in 'an effort to Iarrive at a mutually acceptable method of ensuring that applicants who submitted their plans to the Building Inspector are aware of the need, in many cases, to obtain approval of those building plans by the appropriate fire agency. - At our meeting on July 25, 1988, ., the attached report from the County Administrator' s Office was presented to our Committee and concurred in by the fire agencies that were present and the Building Inspector. Use, of this notification form, along with the . requirement that the applicant sign a statement acknowledging that they have received the form, should ensure . that the appropriate fire agency has had an opportunity to review building plans before final commitments are made by builders and to' inspect the construction. to ensure it complies with the requirements of the fire agency.. Our Committee had initially explored the possibility of actually transferring fire inspection staff to the Building Inspection Department to provide for a centralized plan checking function in Building Inspection on behalf of all. fire agencies. However, as is noted in the report from the County Administrators Office, there are a number of difficulties with this proposal. We believe it is preferable to implement the notification system and review it in one year to determine whether . this notification system has eliminated 'the problems which have occurred in the past. If this system does not work, our - Committee-would be happy .. . to explore other options. . OFFICE OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CONTRA COSTA COUNTY Administration Building Martinez, California Internal Operations July 25, 1988 Committee To: Supervisor Sunne McPeak Date: Supervisor Tom Torlakson . NOTIFICATION TO BUILDERS RE: FIRE DIST. REQUIREMENTS & FEASIBILITY OF Phil Batchelor, TRANSFERRING FIRE DIST. STAFF TO From: County Admi is rator Subject: CO. BUILDING INSPECTION DEPARTMENT fd y ! s=�� l%'Y_. y✓ FOR PLAN CHECKING SERVICES RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Approve the attached notice to building permit applicants advising that building projects must be inspected and approved by an appropriate fire agency prior to final inspection by the County Building Department. Direct County Building Inspector to implement notification procedure by providing building permit applicants with a copy of the notice as appropriate and requiring applicants to sign a statement attesting to the fact that such notice was provided. 2. Approve the report of the County Administrator recommending that there be no transfer of fire district staff to the Building Inspection Department to perform plan checking for all fire districts. BACKGROUND/REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS: On April 25 , 1988, the Board of Supervisors approved a report of the Internal Operations Committee regarding problems related to notification to building permit applicants about fire department requirements. Over the past years, there have been several instances in which buildings were constructed with fire safety problems because the appropriate fire agency had not been involved in the plan checking and review process. Accordingly, the Board of Supervisors approved two recommenda- tions to alleviate the notification problem. The first recommendation requested the Fire Chiefs ' Association and the Building Inspection Department to prepare a notice which could be handed out by the Building Inspection Department to building permit applicants informing them that fire agency approval is necessary to obtain final inspection and occupancy of buildings. The attached notice was developed by the Contra Costa County and the Riverview Protection Districts in conjunction with the Building Inspection Department. The notice informs applicants. of their responsibility to insure that building plans and specifications are . submitted to the appropriate fire jurisdiction. The notice lists the Plan Check - Fire -2- July 25, 1988 various cities and areas of the county and the appropriate fire agency to contact for plan review. The notice will be posted in a prominent place in the Building Inspection Department, included in an informational packet provided to permit applicants and handed out to individuals requesting information about building permits . The Building Inspection Department will document the provision of the notice by requiring applicants to sign a statement attesting that they were informed about the involvement of fire agencies in the permit process. It is believed that the use of the notice and executed verification statement will eliminate the notification problem. The second recommendation approved by the Board in connection with this issue, requested the County Administrator' s Office to study the plan checking staff in the Riverview and Contra Costa County Fire Districts to determine the volume of plan checking in each district, the number of staff assigned and to determine whether there was a feasible way to transfer an existing staff member from a fire district to the Building Inspection Department to do all plan checking for fire agencies. Presented below is a summary of the plan checking workload for Riverview and Contra Costa County. Statistics on field inspections are included for reasons that are discussed later in this report. Plan Review Workload (Unincorporated Areas) Hours Per Week Plan Check Field District (office) Inspections Total Riverview 4 7 11 Consolidated 1. 5 2. 5 4 TOTAL 5 . 5 9. 5 15 Although the recommendation regarding the transfer of fire district personnel to the Building Inspection Department was predicated on the plan check function being performed in the Building Inspection Department, the review of this issue suggested that separation of the plan check function from field inspections would not be a workable arrangement. If the plan check function was centralized in the Building Inspection Department, the original set of plans and specifications including any modifications of those plans would be located in the Building Inspection Department. If the field inspection function was continued in the respective fire districts, it would be necessary for the inspection personnel to maintain duplicate sets of plans and specifications including any subsequent changes to the original plans. Plan Check- Fire -3- July 25, 1988 Currently, the plan review process in each district involves continuity between the plan check and field inspection functions because, in most cases, the inspector that initially checks the plans also does the field inspection for a given project. If the two functions were separated, not only would there be problems with keeping the field inspector informed of plan changes, but the coordination required between the two functions to complete the plan review process would be lost. In view of the negative aspects of separating the plan review functions, we examined the feasibility of transferring the entire plan review process to the Building Inspection Department. The transfer of the entire process to Building Inspection would eliminate the continuity and coordination problems discussed above. However, there would be a great deal of lost productivity because of travel time between fire district offices and the Building Inspection Department, and the travel time required to conduct field inspections. This would be particularly true with respect to the Riverview workload which would require a plan review field inspector to travel from Martinez to Bethel Island, Discovery Bay and Oakley, which could take as much as two hours for a round trip. The plan review workload would require approximately one-third of a position to perform the work at the Building Inspection Department. Approximately two-thirds of that workload is field inspection work which means that fire personnel would be on duty at the Building Inspection Department only about five hours per week. This minimal amount of office coverage would appear to defeat one of the assumed major objectives of the proposal, i.e. , the availability of fire personnel at the Building Inspection Department for the convenience of building permit applicants. While it is not necessary for fire personnel to be available at all times to receive plans, there are many times when the availability of a fire inspector at the time the plans are presented greatly facilitates the plan review process. Although, the proposal to centralize plan checking in the Building Inspection Department envisioned the provision of such services to other fire agencies in the unincorporated areas of the county, the statistics and conclusions in this report were based solely on Riverview and Contra Costa County Fire Protection Districts . Because of the travel time problems discussed in regards to east county inspection work it did not seem reasonable to include other distant areas of the county. In view of the fact that the proposed notice procedure should correct the problems that gave rise to this issue and the apparent absence of benefits in transferring fire inspector personnel to Building Inspection it is recommended that the notice and receipt procedure be implemented. PB:cm Attachments cc: County Administrator, Building Inspection, Chief Alan Little - Riverview Fire District, Asst. Chief Harguth - CCC Fire District, Terry Curtola, BIA CONTRA, COSTA COUNTY BUILDING DEPARTMENT ATTENTION PERMIT APPLICANTS! AVOID ADDITIONAL UNKNOWN COSTS AND DELAYS *IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PERMIT APPLICANT TO INSURE PLANS ARE DELIVERED TO THE APPROPRIATE FIRE AGENCY . .':THE FIRE DEPARTMENT MUST INSPECT AND RELEASE YOUR PROJECT PRIOR TO FINAL INSPECTION BY THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT . IF YOU ARE UNSURE AS TO WHICH FIRE AGENCY HAS JURISDICTION, PLEASE CALL THE DEPARTMENT LISTED WHICH IS MOST NEAR YOUR SITE FOR ASSISTANCE. AREA FIRE DEPT. " CCC CONTRA COSTA COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT 2010 Geary Road ALAMO SRM Pleasant Hill, G 96523 (615) 930-5500 ANTIOCH RVW (f CRK 0ROC]CE1T-CARQUINEZ FIRE PROTECTION BETHEL ISLAND RVW I' 766 Loring Avenue BRENTWOOD RVW " (415)ett767-271796525 BYRON RVW (f ECR EL CEM 710 FIRE DEPARTMENT CANYON MOR " 10900 San Pablo Avenue E1 Cerrito, G 96530 CONCORD CCC I� (115) 237-2123 CLAYTON CCC KEN F.E simcTON TIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT enue CLYDE CCC " KeMArnlgtton, CA 94707 CROCKETT CRK " (115) 526-7300 " MOR MORAGA FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT DANVILLE SRM " 1280 lforaga May EAST DIABLO Noraga, G 96556 RVW (115) 375-5656 EL CERRITO ECR " ORN ORiNDA FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT EL SOBRANTE RNID 33 Grim:. Way Orinda, G 96563 HERCULES RDO (615) 256-1110 KENSINGTON KEN " POE PINOLE FIRE DEPARTMENT KNIGHTSEN RVW (f 680 Tennent Avenue Pinole, G 96566 LAFAYETTE CCC (615) 726-8970 MARTINEZ CCC II ROO RODEO FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT 326 eet MORAGA MOR ii Rodeo, CA 94572 OAKLEY RVW (615) 799-6561 RMD RCID It7ND FIRE DEPARTMENT ORZNDA ORN " Hall of Justice RM. 226 PACHECOCCC Richmond, CA 96806 'I (615) 620-6591 PINOLE POE RVV RIVERVIEH FIRE PROTLCSION DISTRICT PITTSBURG RVW it 1500 Y. Fourth Street Antioch, CA 96509 PLEASANT HILL CCC (615) 757-1303 PORT COSTA CRK SRM 6AX,RANOH VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT RICHMOND RIID 800 San Ramon Valley Boulevard " Danville, G 96526 RODEO RDO 't (615) 837-6212 SAN PABLO RNID TAS TASSAJARA FIRE DEPARTIODPT " 6300 Canino Tassajara SAN RAMON SRM 'I Pleasanton, G 96566 (115) 829-6581 TASSAJARA TAS �'