City Council Moves Forward With Building Code Discussion

The City of Glenwood has taken a step forward in the establishment of building codes.

At its regular meeting Tuesday, Sept. 22, the Glenwood City Council gave unanimous approval to a motion that will allow city administrator Angie Winquist and city clerk Amber Farnan to begin exploring building code enforcement options and potential costs. As part of the process, Winquist and Farnan will be scheduling a public “town hall” meeting to gather input from citizens who would like to learn more about building codes and permits and express their opinion on the matter.

“First of all, we do want input from individuals – both people who are in favor of building permits and those people that have ideas that we don’t need them and why not,” Glenwood Mayor Ron Kohn said. “The majority of the council is very receptive to getting comments from the community. They’re also concerned about the quality of housing in the community.”

Kohn has been encouraging the council to take on the building code issue for the past two years.

“The codes are needed so that folks who buy homes here know they are built to a certain standard and will last for a certain period of time,” he said. “I think it’s important that folks know that.

“If you have a variety of individuals coming in and building homes – doing different components within it, in many instances they are not built up to common standards.”

The building codes would address all structures, not just residential homes. With codes in place, owners of existing structures would be required to bring their buildings up to standard when renovations take place, Kohn said.
Permits and fee schedules will be part of the building code process.

“Depending upon the amount of work, permits would be needed,” Kohn said. “In some instances, the work would actually be done by the homeowner or by knowledgeable individuals. It’s simply a matter of if they build them to the standards, when a person inspects them, they should not have any problems.”

Kohn said many of the established builders in Glenwood have experience working in other communities where building codes and a permit process is already in place.

“They’re comfortable with it,” Kohn said. “They have an idea of what’s expected of them.”

Kohn said “Step 2 in the process” will be determining if the city wants to have its own inspector on payroll or contracting with an outside firm who has expertise in the matter.

Although the city has no formal building codes in place presently, some areas, such as electrical wiring, are inspected and approved according to state standards. Permits, applied for at City Hall, are required for expansion and improvements of existing structures.

No timeline has been set for creating the city codes, but Kohn expects the process to be completed by next spring.  Getting the code written correctly is more important that getting it done in a specific time frame, Kohn said.

“We want housing to be at a standard that people have a home they feel comfortable living in,” he said.