The City of Smithville's board of aldermen passed three new ordinances on second reading in a special-called meeting Monday night that will entail some changes in fees and fines for building construction. First reading of the bill was approved at the board's regular meeting on Dec. 1

According the ordinances, the city may require plan reviews and permitting, and periodic adjustment of fees charged. The permit fees will be based on building size in square footage.

City Building Codes Inspector Lionel Williams told the aldermen at the Dec. 1 meeting that the changes would apply to only to new construction, and existing structures would be exempt until renovations are performed.

“This is about new construction.” Williams told the mayor and aldermen. “The ICC, the International Code Council produces a building evaluation report every six months. On this evaluation report, it has your types of buildings. For example, an R-3 is a commercial building with one and two family dwellings. They take a national average and say ‘This is what it cost per square foot to build this type of building, based on the type of materials being used to build this building.’ That doesn't necessarily mean that's what it's going to cost to build that building. It's just an average for you to charge a permit fee on to make this an asset to the city instead of a liability. You don't want your code's department to be a liability,"

Williams said the move was needed to plan for the future.

"What I am trying to do is plan ahead, because someday you are going to need a full-time code's officer here instead of going through a contractor like me. This will help you get into that groove where you already have things in place. We're already required by the state to do plumbing and mechanical inspections, whether it be residential or commercial and since we're already having to do it, you need to charge a fee for it to be compensated for going out and doing the work," he said.

"This is a step toward making the city get to where it can actually someday put in place its own codes office and have its own code officials out here working with the police chief to make sure the city is well kept and well maintained. Some of the things in the ordinance clarify the fines for failing to do something. You guys have great zoning regulations now but you have no enforcement on it. What this does is attach enforcement even on your zoning regulations. It doesn't need to be abused but it does need to be used from time to time. One day every building in your city will be a code compliant building but it will take several years for that to happen," Williams shared.

For residential/commercial construction, fees shall be determined by the following schedule:

For construction with a total valuation of $1,000 or less, no fee will be assessed unless an inspection is required. If required, a fee of $15 per inspection will be charged.

For construction valued at $1,001 to $50,000, a $15 charge will be assessed for the first $1,000, plus $5 for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof, up to and including $50,000.

The fee for construction valued at $50,001 to $100,000 will be $260 for the first $50,000, plus $4 for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof, up to and including $100,000.

For construction valued at $100,001 to $500,000, the fee will be $460 for the first $100,000 plus $3 for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof, up to and including $500,000.

The fee for construction valued at $500,001 and up will be $1,660 for the first $500,000 plus $2 for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof.

For all Non-Residential/Commercial Construction such as storage buildings, fences, decks, and wheelchair ramps, etc. the fees shall be determined by a separate fee schedule.

For example, for buildings 10,000 square feet or less, the permit fee would be 30 cents per square foot.

When the evaluation of the proposed construction exceeds $1,000 and a plan is required to be submitted, a plan review fee would be required at the time of submitting plans and specification for review equal to one half of the building permit fee as determined from the fee schedules. The plan review fee would be in addition to the building permit fee but no such fee would be charged for the review of plans for one and two family dwellings.

The ordinances will take effect Jan. 1.