GILROY—Three private consulting firms assumed responsibility for checking all new major building plans earlier this month, a transition that could bring advantages and obstacles to Gilroy’s property developers.
Gilroy had already employed CSG Consultants, 4LEAF and West Coast Code Consultants to assist its own development department since 2013. The three firms initially supplemented city staff during times of peak workload, conducting plan checks and inspecting buildings as needed, said Lee Butler, a senior official in the Community Development Department.
Going forward, the firms will review plans for all large-scale projects, assuring compliance with codes regulating electrical, plumbing and mechanical compliance, accessibility and seismic safety, among other standards, said Kristi Abrams, head of the Community Development Department. City staff will still review the planning and engineering phases of the building process, and smaller “over-the-counter” plans will still be performed in-house, she said.
The transition to fully outsourced plan checks coincided with the departure of David Chung, who left Gilroy as chief building official on Nov. 5 for a similar position in Fremont, Butler said. The firms began preparing to take over Chung’s plan-inspection duties in late October, he said.
The city has begun looking for a new building official, Abrams said. Whoever fills the new post will be in charge of building inspections and smaller plan checks only.
Abrams said Chung and his staff were under-equipped to manage the complexity of the plan-check process on their own. The consulting firms are better prepared to manage today’s complex and layered building codes, which have overstretched city staff in the past, she added.
“When you look at all the building codes plus all the reporting documents for the regulations, it’s very difficult for one person to know all the different aspects,” she said. “So when a large distribution company came in with a building, our building official was not familiar with a lot of what they did.”
Developer James Suner agreed.
“David was overwhelmed,” Suner said. “Between [unreinforced masonry structures] and the Downtown Specific Plan, there was a lot of work coming into that department.”
Full outsourcing will improve customer service, Abrams said. Applicants who before would have to wait four to six weeks to receive revisions from city staff can now expect a response in two to three weeks, she said.
The consultants offer modern customer service and a greater base of expertise, said Abrams. The process is completely electronic, enabling specialists based in different offices to work quickly on the same plan, she said.
Members of Gilroy’s development community foresee potential downsides as well as benefits.
A more remote, less personal process could put independent developers at a disadvantage, said Steve Ashford, a general contractor who sits on Gilroy’s Planning Commission and URM Task Force. Large national home developers, which often recycle several floor plans across multiple developments, could go through the process faster than smaller builders, which more frequently undertake custom projects and complex retrofits with unique problems, he said.
Ashford recalled having a difficult relationship with Chung, saying he “butted heads” with the building official from the start of his tenure. Nonetheless, he could work hand-in-hand with Chung and expect personal attention to the details of his plan.
“Now I’ve got to put [a plan] in on email and get it to the guy in San Jose,” Ashford said. “I think that will slow down the guy doing retrofits and the houses that are not quite cookie-cutter projects. So it will slow some of that down.”
The aesthetic and sentimental aspects of Gilroy’s architecture may suffer as well, said Reid Lerner, owner of Reid Lerner Architects.
“I believe it will make it harder for people to get permits for old buildings downtown,” said Lerner said. “Someone who’s familiar with Gilroy and downtown and the character of the buildings may be more sympathetic to a plan to fix the buildings, whereas someone not familiar with Gilroy, they will not know the context.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of outside people making decisions about our town,” he added.
On the other hand, greater objectivity has its advantages, Lerner said. Gilroy will benefit from greater consistency and a larger base of qualified people to review plans.
“I can see both sides,” he said.
The quality of service that developers will get from the consulting companies ultimately depends on the individual employee assigned to a plan, said developer Gary Walton.
“It’s kind of a crapshoot,” he said.
