FARMINGTON — A proposal to require property owners to take out a building permit before doing construction work brought mixed reaction from the public at a recent public hearing.

Residents will consider two new ordinances at the annual Town Meeting: one for fire and life safety and another for building inspections.

The Fire and Life Safety Ordinance would give the Farmington Fire Department formal authority to inspect building plans and the building permit ordinance is intended to create a better system for the town to gather information about new structures.

The new ordinances would have to be approved by voters at the Town Meeting on March 23 before they could be enacted.

At a public hearing on the proposals last week, the selectmen discussed the proposed ordinances with about a half dozen residents without taking a vote.

The building permit ordinance would require a permit from the code enforcement officer for construction, alternations, or demolition work on structures in town. It would also create a record of the construction that could be used to adjust property tax valuation on the property.

Attorney Paul Mills, who was in attendance at the hearing on the ordinances, said he would rather the town improve a notification system that already exists and make it more enforceable, rather than create a new law.

Town Manager Richard Davis said Friday that if the new building permit ordinance was approved, it would make sense for the town to also redact the notification system.

“It would render that one redundant,” he said.

The ordinance calls for a sliding fee scale for building permits, with different fees. Commercial and industrial building owners would pay 75 cents per $1,000 of the building’s cost, or $75 for a single-family or multi-unit building and $15 for a new garage.

Davis said most towns require building permits, and said requiring the permits in Farmington would be more enforceable than a system in which property owners notify the town of their construction projects.

Unpermitted projects, where the owner does not obtain the required permits within 10 days, even after notification from the code enforcement officer, would be subject to civil penalties.

The second ordinance would be a fire and life safety ordinance that would give formal authority to the local fire department to conduct safety inspections. Davis said now the law gives the state fire marshal’s office authority to inspect buildings for whether they are hazards to fire or life safety, but the Farmington Fire Department generally conducts the inspections.

Davis said after getting feedback from the meeting, the town struck language from the ordinances that was requiring inspections for owner-occupied homes and duplexes.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252

kschroeder@centralmaine.com

 

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