First Appeals Board for Housing Selected

The city has never gotten around to appointing a building and housing appeals board--it never needed one.

After receiving their first appeal, however, building officials asked the City Council to appoint a panel to look into a challenge by resident Kristie Davis to an inspector’s assessment of a project in which a garage was converted into a bedroom.

“The activity of the board is likely to be minimal,” Community Development Director Jack McGee said. The city’s staff “has never before received a building-housing appeal.”

The state’s Uniform Building and Housing Codes requires the city to have such a board, however, so the City Council, at McGee’s request, approved a three-member panel.

They are engineer Jim Brennan, architect Rich Brumfield and general contractor Frank Bauman, all of whom have businesses in the city.

Their responsibilities, McGee said, will include resolving conflicts in interpretation of the city’s building code.

State law requires public hearings within 60 days after an appeal is filed. In Davis’ case, no hearing date has been set yet because the city attorney’s office is working with Davis to resolve the dispute. If that happens, McGee said, the appeals board would not convene.