SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – When a new law is passed, builders can hire their own inspectors to keep projects on time. House Bill 98 would also allow builders to bypass city ordinances that required a house or building to look a certain way.
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Representatives from 17 cities are in an uproar and say the state government is going too far.
“It’s a problem because it essentially takes away the power of municipalities to regulate building standards in their own cities,” said Nina Morse, a member of the West Haven Council.
Utah is booming and that shows in all the construction we see.
“We’re one of the fastest growing cities in the state,” said Councilor Morse.
She says that with all the new building the city is undertaking, she fears that House Bill 98 could derail some of the city’s master plans by reaching out to city inspectors to complete the construction.
“Now you have developers who monitor themselves,” she says. “It significantly changes our oversight of the safety of buildings. We don’t know if they are safe. “
Councilor Morse says cities basically have three options with inspectors.
“If our city inspectors can’t do the inspection on time, we’ve also hired inspectors to back up on standby and wait for them to be called in to these inspections,” she says.
Clinton representative Paul Ray introduced HB 98. He says it aims to do three things.
- Throw away architectural design standards
“So it eliminates people with certain income levels to move to these cities. We call this redlining, ”says Rep. Ray.
2. Enable developers to get building permits faster
“It gives them a chance to do their job, and when they can’t, these homeowners can keep building,” says Rep. Ray.
3. Allow a developer to hire an inspector if a city cannot complete an inspection on time.
“If the city can’t do this in three days, the contractor has the right to hire a DOPL-approved licensed inspector to do these inspections and do the rest of the inspections. You can stay on time,” added Rep. Ray.
The rep says his bill is to make housing more affordable while keeping projects on time. He said he surveyed cities during last year’s legislature.
“Honestly, only 82 percent of cities reported back so we really didn’t have great data,” says Rep. Ray.
He continues, “I think it helps cities when they have a home backlog. You can know the contractor now has that option. You can relieve the cities a lot. “
“HB 98 is really a worrying bill,” said Hayley Alberts, a member of South Weber’s city council. “It enables developers and builders to bypass the existing communities for inspections and plans, review the code, and ensure that all of our rules are followed in our cities.”
She says heads of state shouldn’t take a unified approach to building.
“For us, this means that developers can do a lot more with a lot less work, and it’s the responsibility of the city. In the end, it doesn’t do anything to make housing affordable, ”says councilor Alberts. “What I find and what I found with this press release. A lot of people don’t think this bill is negotiable, it’s a bad bill, and it has to die on committee. “
Rep. Ray says he changed HB 98 and more information will be released through the League of Cities next week. He hopes that when this letter comes out it will clear up the confusion about the bill.
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