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Limited response to building inspection plan

Last Wednesday’s meeting about the proposed, new building inspection service in Columbia Shuswap Regional District Area E garnered little attention from the local public.
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Electoral Area E resident Ron Dovell, took the opportunity last Wednesday to voice his opinions regarding the proposed new building inspection service to CSRD Director Rhona Martin.

Last Wednesday’s meeting about the proposed, new building inspection service in Columbia Shuswap Regional District Area E garnered little attention from the local public.

“We had four people,” Corey Paiement, team leader of development services, reported of the turnout at the information session, adding that about 50 people attended the same meeting in Revelstoke the following night. “We had no official comments submitted, but people did have a lot of questions about the service; the timeline, applications, the process.”

This building inspection service, that won’t affect the actual District of Sicamous, is being introduced into the electoral areas—including Area E, which encompasses Malakwa, Swansea Point and other rural neighbourhoods—will take effect Jan. 1, 2018 but will not be retroactive. That means that anything built before that deadline will not have to undergo inspection afterwards, though current builds do still have to adhere to the B.C. Building Code.

This updated inspection function will ultimately be introduced into Areas B, E and F, with the latter having had a building inspection service in parts of its region since 2001.

“Right now in the CSRD, it’s only the settlement areas of Electoral Area F that have building inspection. This is to include the other electoral areas and to expand that of Area F,” explained manager of development services Gerald Christie. “A lot of people coming from other areas, larger centres, are surprised we don’t have building inspection.”

He went on to explain that the service is established by local governments to ensure that all new construction complies with the B.C. Building Code and monitors health and safety, builds on planning goals, promotes equitable taxation, provides planning information and protects consumers.

The proposed new service – expected to cost $370,000 in the first year – will be funded through building permit fees, with close to $200,000 expected through that, with the remainder to come from property taxes. That, however, is expected to be a nominal fee, with the example stating $15.60 on an assessed property value of $200,000.

The full building inspection plan can be viewed online at www.csrd.bc.ca.