FARMINGTON — Residents approved an ordinance for fire and life safety but rejected a proposal to require building permits and inspections Monday night at the annual Town Meeting.

The Fire and Life Safety Ordinance gives the town’s Fire Department formal authority to conduct safety inspections. Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser said state law gives the state fire marshal authority to inspect buildings for fire hazards or safety issues, but in Farmington, the Fire Department generally conducts the actual inspections.

“We’re already doing this work. What this does is codify it locally,” Kaiser said. “It’s just making it easier and more effective when it comes to this code.”

Fire Chief Terry Bell said the life safety ordinance also can help with the area’s Insurance Service Office ratings — the better the rating, the lower home insurance rates.

The building permit ordinance, which had the support of only 1 of about 50 voters in attendance, would have required a permit from the code enforcement officer for construction, alterations or demolition work on structures in town. Fees for the permits would have varied by project. It also could have created a record of the construction that could be used to adjust property tax valuation on the property.

Residents who opposed the ordinance said it was another burdensome regulation without a clear reason why.

Attorney Paul Mills spoke at length in opposition to the article, saying the ordinance would add to existing regulations unnecessarily.

“This ordinance proposes a significant expansion of the number of occasions when permission will be required,” he said.

He criticized the wording for not specifying a deadline for the code enforcement officer to respond to an application by granting or rejecting a permit.

Kaiser said the ordinance has been considered periodically over the past 15 years with the goal of making the current system of building rules more unified with a project registration form to supplant old ordinances.

“It was just something we felt was responsible to try again,” he said.

Kaiser said the feedback from the town on Monday night was helpful in going forward with any alternative plan in the future.

In elections before the business meeting, Budget Committee member Matt Smith was elected unopposed to the Board of Selectmen, and incumbent Iris Silverstein was elected unopposed to the Mt. Blue Regional School District board of directors.

The votes on the ordinance came after a two-hour session in which voters adopted a $5.34 million budget, up 6.3 percent over last year’s. The budget was increased above the $5.25 million budget proposed by selectmen and the Budget Committee with the majority of the increase resulting from $83,000 added by voters for road repairs.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252

kschroeder@centralmaine.com

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