The early winter weather advisory this month allowed residents of Springfield and Greene County to make preparations before they were inundated by snow. Building development services in the area also are preparing themselves for a storm of their own.
Layoffs in Greene County have meant less personnel are available to handle requests for plan reviews, permits and inspections.
“I am concerned, as someone who lives in this area,” said Rick Quint, president of Springfield-based contractor Q and Co. LLC. “They are going to have an impact. There is no way they won’t.”
Officials at both the county and city levels share Quint’s concern.
“We had to lay off people and restructure,” said David O’Dell, Greene County chief regulatory officer. “Today is Friday and we’re already scheduling inspections for Tuesday. Monday’s booked up.
“That’s going to become more normal than unusual.”
Striking a balanceBudget cuts have plagued Greene County departments, some of which already had their budgets cut by nearly 25 percent since 2008. The county budget fell to $114.9 million in 2013, from $130.4 million in 2008, according to a statement released by the Greene County commissioners. That includes one-third of the building and planning staff for the county.
A proposed use tax on out-of-state purchases was estimated to generate $3 million in new revenue and could have helped stave off another round of cuts, but it was defeated by voters in the November election.
“The community’s going to have to adjust because we can only do so much with the staff we’ve got,” said O’Dell. “We can only do so many stops per day, then we have to go on to the next day.”
O’Dell’s staff took another hit in the 2014 budget plan, which was announced Nov. 22. Two positions in Planning and Building Services were cut and, as a result of those cuts, rural zoning enforcement will be eliminated.
The biggest issue for building contractors, though, is a reduction in office hours.
“What happens a lot of times is superintendents will call in an inspection between 7 and 8 a.m. to try and get it done the same day. But if they don’t open until 8, I don’t think you’re going to get your inspection done that day,” Quint said.
“Or, vice-versa, it’s late in the afternoon and you need to call in an inspection for tomorrow. If it’s after 4:30, you’re going to be out of luck. That’s going to have a big impact.”
In 2008, there were 19 employees budgeted for the planning and zoning and building regulation staff. There are just eight budgeted for the 2014 budget.
“Our inspectors are classified as combination inspectors,” O’Dell said. “They are trained to conduct all the required inspections. We don’t necessarily count the number of inspections per day, but the type of inspections, the distance to travel and the amount of time to conduct the inspection.
“For instance, a final – or rough-in – inspection will take more time than a footing inspection. Most days they can make 10 to 15 stops.”
The county issued about 4,500 total building permits in 2004, a number that has dropped heavily. In 2012, permits totaled 1,167 and remained flat in 2013, down only four permits to 1,164 through November. The drop, O’Dell said, wasn’t due to delays in the resource management office.
On the city sideThe city of Springfield hasn’t had to deal with layoffs like the county has, but still finds itself short-staffed from time to time, causing possible delays.
“If someone gets sick, or has vacation time through the holidays, or there are bad roads, (there might be a delay),” said Chris Straw, the director of Building Development Services for the city. “But we have not encountered the problems that Greene County has encountered. We may have to push things back a little bit, but we don’t ignore people or anything like that. When things pile up, we just roll up our sleeves and do what we can to help people out.”
And while contractors like Quint appreciate that effort, it still puts them in a bind.
“We have deadlines,” Quint said. “They’ve already advertised (a project) is going to open on a certain date. If I’ve got three months to build it and, all of a sudden, a permit gets delayed, I can’t go to the owner and say I’m going to delay your project for two weeks because someone went on vacation.
“If my superintendent gets sick, or has a death in the family, or goes on vacation, I’ve got to put somebody in his place and make it happen.”
The city of Springfield issued 974 building permits in 2013, down from 1,012 in 2012. Permits steadily declined as the year drew to a close, from a spike of 101 in October to 51 in December.
“Right now we’re staying the course,” Straw said. “Once summer hits and we get busy, we may have to change our tune, but right now that’s where we’re at. I don’t know (why permits are down). During the holiday season, people take a break and things like that. But we’re still busy.”
And when they do, Straw believes his staff will be ready.
“If those numbers go back up, we’ll have to figure something out,” Straw said. “We’ll find a way to get more work done with the same amount of staff. But right now we’re doing a good job getting everything done with the staff that we have.”
The new normalAll parties agreed staffing concerns haven’t created major backlogs in permits or inspections, at least not yet. Instead, the slight delays have been treated as something of a new normal.
“They’ve been very good about working with us,” Quint said. “Rather than have them come out for one thing at a time, they’re able to come out and do a couple of things so we don’t have to hold up work and wait for them.”
Quint and his staff have been working in and around Springfield for nearly 18 years, constructing more than $400 million in projects. Q and Co. was formed in 2010 and has recently worked on the John Deere Core Consolidation Center in Strafford, as well as renovations to the Paladin Building in Springfield. That experience has helped the company find ways to deal with waits; doing those inspections in chunks, for example.
“Typically, in an in-fill project, you would do all the framing, then get a framing inspection. Let’s do all the plumbing and then get a plumbing inspection,” Quint said. “That’s not the way the real world works. You’re going to get 10 to 15 rooms done and keep moving. They’ll work with you. They’ll inspect a few at a time, then mark off what’s been done, and that creates a lot more flow for the job.”
Still, those delays put pressure on all contractors – Quint and his staff included. They have to make sure they plan well ahead for those on-site instructions, because a last-minute call will mean a wait of a day or more for a visit. With the Ozarks’ unpredictable weather, however, that one day could turn into several.
“If you have to move a concrete pour one day, you might think it’s no big deal,” Quint said. “But look at the weather forecast for this week. If we want to pour concrete today, because it’s 40 degrees, and they can’t get it inspected, guess what? Monday it’s going to be 6 degrees and you aren’t going to be pouring concrete. One day can mean a week, and that’s when it starts to get ugly.”
And Quint fears delays like that might discourage out-of-town developers from building in Springfield and Greene County.
“Will they bypass Springfield and go to Joplin or Fayetteville because it takes too long to get it done here?” Quint said. “Time is money. These guys, the minute they pull the trigger, they want to be open the next day.”
The delays haven’t soured the relationship between contractors and building regulators in the area.
“The people that are running these departments are good people. Their hands are just tied,” Quint said. “You can see the frustration in their faces when they tell us they’re cutting their hours or losing employees. We need to find a way to get them funding, whether that’s raising permit fees or something else, we need to do it. Because it doesn’t look like the voters are going to find a way to make it happen.”
Both O’Dell and Straw – along with Rick Garner, an engineer at Springfield’s Building Development Services – were guests for a panel discussion at the Springfield Contractors Association’s January meeting, at the invitation of Quint, chairman of the SCA’s government liaison committee. That open forum-style meeting, held. Jan. 7, gave contractors the chance to ask questions and get feedback, but it’s not the only contact regulators have with builders.
“We work with the (Homebuilders Association of Greater Springfield) every quarter and with the contractors association every two months,” O’Dell said. “We go over things with them. The city does the same thing. We keep communication open.”
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