CHAPTER 4 Siting The Home:
Once you have purchased the lot, completed your design, and received quotations for the long lead time (time between ordering and receipt) items and subcontractors it is time to apply for permits. After receiving your building and storm water permits you should obtain builder’s risk and other insurance (Chap. 2) prior to allowing anyone to set foot on the lot.The major activities of this chapter are securing the building permit, other paperwork necessary to begin construction, as well as lot clearing and grading. More fees must be paid, and notices must be posted and made, depending upon your state and local laws and codes.
Detailed Schedule –Part C*
- File
a Notice of Intent (FL) & SWPPP34 (fax or email
address __________________) (continued in book)
- Fill
out “EPL” card (Energy Performance Level) for permit -Florida
Building Code, Chap. 13, Energy Code.
- Notice
of Commencement (Florida) –owner shall record w/ clerk before(continued in book)
- Must
pay Water Tap fee $_______ & Sewer tap fee
$_______ (unless septic field)
before can get permit. Get Lot & Block no.(continued in book)
- Building
Permit application with state ENERGY CODE calculations. Must
include stair details on plans. Date permit received_________;
PERMIT NO. ____________; (in TN Need: Address Certificate, 2 site
plans & 1 floor plan)
- FL
Bldg Code required INSPECTIONS list: Foundation, Framing, Sheathing, (continued in book)
- Inspections
called by others: Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical, and Gas (these
subs call their own inspections for: underground, Roughin, &
Final).
- Builder’s
Risk Insurance: (Include sweat equity in estimated cost of
construction.)
- BBHWA6
“Construction Indication” form before breaking ground. (continued in book)
- FLORIDA
POSTINGS on SITE: (Ch.1 FL Bldg. Code) (continued in book)
- Notify
power company: Order temporary power pedestal before slab work.
- Plumber
to give septic elevation (building sewer invert elev.) for fill and
grading.
- (continued in book)
- Lot
clearing tree removal (Add fill dirt to raise elevation to above
septic field), grade lot, roughin septic field.
*Detailed Schedule – Part C in this chapter continues
the sequence of construction tasks following Part B in Chapter 3. See
Appendix B for the complete Detailed Schedule. Dimensions and amounts
are based on codes in Tennessee, Colorado, and Florida, local
requirements, and the Uniform Building Code that change frequently.
Verify all in this book before acting on them.
Building Permit:
Many
municipalities base the cost of the building permit upon the total
covered square footage of the structure, including garages, porches,
and other areas under roof. The permit cost difference from state to
state can be significant.
So
called impact fees (imposed
for the supposed impact upon public utilities) may have
already been paid by the developer of your property. Impact fees
allow the countys to gain extra tax revenues under the guise of
having to provide more services, plant and equipment for roads,
power, gas, and water to your grand estate. If the developer did not
pay this tax, or if you are the developer, you may be required to pay
the impact fees. Verify this before purchasing your lot. The NAHB in
its Impact Fee Handbooki
attributes 4% of the price of an average single-family home in 2008
to impact, permit, and hookup fees alone. That's $8,000 for a home
costing $200,000, going to plant and equipment that is supposedly
covered by other local taxes.
This
places an undue burden on the new homebuyer that theoretically
benefits the community, and contributes to making new homes more
expensive than existing. Many communities faced with declining
housing during the downturn of 2008, suspended these excessive impact
fees when faced with the reality of declining property taxes due to
reduction in building. Reducing taxes produces greater revenue
through more growth.
Dealing with Code enforcement (Building Dept):
Building departments began as agencies protecting the public safety, and evolved to elaborate bureaucracies with enormous bodies of codes and regulations dealing with issues not limited to safety. This is due to the natural tendency of unrestrained government to grow, as there is no end to the desire to regulate, nor its rationalized justification. Building quality control used to be just a local list of requirements, then expanded to statewide mandates. Now, the new International Building Code is emerging that, as its name implies, will give central control of building to a universal committee (ICCii). In Texas and California some towns have gone beyond protecting the public safety and are requiring design elements like fireplaces, windows in garage doors, brick on all exterior walls, and are specifying minimum living areas - a clear government overreach.“In 1991, a commission of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development organized by then-Secretary Jack Kemp reported that one of the most serious barriers to affordable housing was the existence of costly and counterproductive government policies…. The report estimated that [government] regulations increased the average price of housing by between 20 percent and 35 percent,” according to the John Locke Foundationiii. That was years ago, and regulations have increased exponentially since. That means that more than one-third of your home cost is due to government regulations, many of which are indirectly related. “The total tax and fees on the American dream in Florida is as high as 34 percent in some jurisdictions – making Florida the state with the second highest fees on new home constructioniv,” the president of the FHBA (Florida Homebuilder's Association, www.fhba.com) stated in 2007. These expenses do not even include the hidden costs due to subsidies for low-income housing, interest rate manipulation, and other false economies created by government’s artificial propping-up of the housing market.
Not only does your government make operating a building business increasingly challenging due to excessive regulation of the residential construction industry, but the easy money attitude since the creation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae resulted in the so called Great Recession of 2008, and undermined the livelihood of many subcontractors, homeowners, and small builders31. Under presidents Bill Clinton in 2000, and George Bush in 2007, required lending quotas to unqualified buyers to be lowered. Sen. Barney Frank imposed affordable housing requirements on the two government sponsored enterprises, stating, I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation toward government subsidized housing. Down payment barriers were reduced to as low as 3% for conventional loans from the previously safe level of 20% for an FHA loan, and low interest rates were encouraged by the Federal Reserve’s actions. These lost jobs statistics will not be found in the unemployment rolls, since the loss of work largely affects independent contractors and small business owners, not employees who claim unemployment compensation from the government. Many construction industry operatives never reentered the businesses devastated by their rulers. The housing market usually leads the US into and out of recessions, but our misguided leaders are seemingly unaware of this.
The historically large housing downturn that began to haunt the independent builder or subcontractor in 2007, appeared to have no end in sight for a number of years. The survival mentality and resilience of our enterprising citizens who were working at or below cost to stay afloat is commendable in spite of all the regulatory burdens placed upon them in trying times by federal and local governments.
The cause of the world-widev collapse in housing and thus the financial sector that began in 2007, is multifaceted and examined in detail by The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in its reportvi, in the references at the end of this book, but is not conclusive. There are dissenting opinionsvii by some of the members of this commission of the appointed four Republicans and six Democrats, which was established by Congress in May 2009, under the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, signed by President Barrack Obama. In its Conclusions the commission succinctly states, …it was the collapse of the housing bubble—fueled by low interest rates, easy and available credit, scant regulation, and toxic mortgages— that was the spark that ignited a string of events, which led to a full-blown crisis in the fall of 2008. Regardless, in its detailed explanations the commission tends to downplay the role of the federal government in actively encouraging the reckless lending that precipitated the debacle.31
The same historical mistakes are being repeated today.
All of this macro economic influence seems to have little effect on your dealings with your local building department. The everyday, mundane tasks of dealing with authorities continues.
(this discussion continued in book).
...
Storm Water:
The developer of a subdivision must comply with the Clean Water Act (CWA) passed by Congress, which entails preventing pollutants (including sediment) from running off the land with storm water. In order to comply land owners must have a storm water pollution prevention plan (SWPPP)i, implemented by installing erosion control fencing and hay bales, sweeping streets after a heavy rain, creating berms and retention areas to prevent runoff, etc. The requirements vary from state to state.You should request a copy of the SWPPP from the developer of your subdivision before purchasing a lot. In many locales you will be allowed to use his master plan for the subdivision, which will avoid many thousands of dollars in costs to develop. A National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitii to the developer covers the requirements of the plan. You may be allowed to file a Notice of Intent or other document to agree that you will comply with the master SWPPP of the developer under his NPDES permit. Once your project is completed you must also notify the authorities that you wish to terminate the permit coverage. Be sure to read the extensive literature from the EPA in the Endnote references and Appx. A at the end of this book for the full requirements as well as the literature from your state.
Issues cannot be avoided in building, they will arise. One home we built was on a steep rise above a neighbor’s rear yard with a swimming pool. The owner’s pool contractor called to ask if he could dump the dirt from the pool excavation on our lot. We were glad to allow it, since we would probably need fill dirt later anyway. Before beginning grading of our lot, rain runoff carried a slight bit of sediment into that new pool from the dirt of the same neighbor’s excavation, and turned the water a yellowish color.
At the neighbor’s request we erected silt fencing and barriers, but the erosion continued until sod was eventually planted months later. Her pool deck was not properly sloped away from the pool and backed up to our rear yard with no swale to divert water away, acting as a perfect funnel for the runoff into the pool. This was before the state was heavily applying the rules covering storm water from small individual construction sites. We had done a favor in allowing the neighbor's pool excavator to deposit dirt on our lot, but we were considered responsible for that dirt when it washed back to that lot, an almost impossible situation to correct. A couple of years later our job would have been shut down or some expensive elaborate system would have been required to be devised to control the small flow. So, be aware of your surrounding water flow paths as well as your own.
Had the neighbor’s pool deck been properly sloped with a swale to carry water around it, and had we not allowed their contractor to dump loose dirt on our lot, the problem would have been avoided. Thankfully, we finished the job ahead of schedule and (continued in book).
CLICK "older posts" ON RIGHT AT BASE OF THIS PAGE TO READ MORE:
i
Environmental Protection Agency of the United States. National
Pollution Discharge Elimination System - Storm Water Pollution
Prevention Plan. [article from the internet]. [cited 2013 May 22].
Available from: cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/cgp.cfm
also:
www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/sw_swppp_guide.pdf
.......
i
National Association of Homebuilders. Impact Fee Handbook. By
Development Planning and Financing Group 2008 version. [ebook from
the internet]. [cited 2013 May 23]. Available from:
www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentID=184609&fromGSA=1
ii
International Code Council, Inc., 5023 Leesburg Pike, Ste. 600,
Falls Church, Virginia 22041.
iii
http://www.johnlocke.org/agenda2006/housing.html
iv
FHB Action News (June 18, 2007) President’s Message
By
John Wiseman.
v
http://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-reports/fcic_final_report_hennessey_holtz-eakin_thomas_dissent.pdf
vi
http://fcic.law.stanford.edu/report/
vii
http://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-reports/fcic_final_report_wallison_dissent.pdf
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