Trail’s decision to go it alone on building inspection is making some local builders nervous.
Several of them attended a recent council meeting to say they have had a solid relationship with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, which presently provides the service for Trail and other member municipalities.
Junior Hamm of JHC Construction said he has had “nothing but a positive working experience with building inspectors at the regional district.”
“Building inspectors can slow down a project or they help a project flow along,” he said. “The building inspectors there have always helped.”
The city recently gave six months’ notice to the RDKB that it will pull out of the regional inspection service, to which Trail has belonged since at least 1994. Council was concerned about the rising cost of regional inspection and thinks it can save money by hiring its own inspector.
Hamm said he said he hopes the city is able to provide the same level of service, which he said can be the difference between a stressful and stress-free day in construction.
Other builders said they were concerned the transition could be bumpy, that there will be no back-up if the city’s inspector goes on leave, and that the city won’t be able to take advantage of the institutional knowledge held by current RDKB inspectors.
“It’s good to know we have a high standard to meet,” city manager Colin McClure replied. “We are hoping that we will not only meet but exceed it. Not to say it’s going to be perfect from Day One, but we are committed to making it work.”
McClure said the city’s recent addition of a planner after going many years without allows them to take on inspections. He added that they hope having a single stop for permits and inspections will benefit builders.
The move will have staffing consequences for the RDKB, but what that looks like remains to be seen.
Chief administrator James Chandler said they will work closely with the city during the transition period. He said Trail accounts for about 30 per cent of the permits issued in the entire regional district.
“So it’s a reasonable amount of our work, but it’s hard to say how many hours that relates to, because each permit is not an exact correlation to the level of effort,” he said.
Chandler said while the reduced workload will mean a restructuring for the RDKB’s building inspectors, it’s too soon to say how it will unfold.
He added that he understands why Trail has opted to go solo.
“I do recognize they’re big enough to stand on their own for building inspection, so we’ll work with them as best as we can in this transition,” Chandler said.
Not mentioned in Trail’s decision was the city’s inability to open an overnight shelter this past winter when RDKB inspectors insisted any such space needed to have sprinklers.
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