Half Moon Bay contractors and City Hall employees are criticizing the city’s building-inspection process, which they say has become slow, redundant and unfriendly. Local construction firms say the city’s punctilious building inspectors are deterring new construction projects both big and small.
“It feels like a separate agency, like they’re working against you,” said Bryan Bodas, co-owner of Silva Bodas & Company. “When the process is difficult, homeowners don’t want to deal with it … That affects us. That means less work.”
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Changes came to the city building inspections process last year when the city laid off its full-time building inspector to help manage $1.75 million in cuts. And like a homeowner getting a contractor to handle a house project, the city of Half Moon Bay hired a contractor firm to fill that role.
The building-inspection contractor, CSG Consultants, already fills a number of city positions, including the city engineer and public works director. The firm has been received skeptically by some full-time city employees, who fear that the city will rely further on contracted help to balance a new $2.5 million budget shortfall.
Several local builders have praised the city’s former building department and its laid-off inspector, Mike Martins. Under the old system, city inspectors reportedly would approve preliminary plans under the agreement that the contractor would update the project as it proceeded.
“If you did good work, they wouldn’t nitpick every item,” Bodas said. “With this different agency, they tend to slow the process upfront. They ask you to redo drawings.”
City Manager Michael Dolder defended the outsourced building review process. Laying off the building inspector last year, he said, was one way for the city to revise what was essentially an inefficient system.
“People were submitting incomplete plans and getting away without modifications,” he said. “Now, we have the depth of expertise a contracting company. They can send plans in and get them improved and reviewed by more capable people.”
The decrease in local construction has directly hit the city coffers. Half Moon Bay officials recently announced that construction-service charges had dropped 50 percent below expectations projected last year, a decrease of $550,084.
Dolder has attributed the bulk of that amount to be from large-scale subdivision projects such as the Carnoustie and Pacific Ridge developments that were delayed for other reasons.
Contractor Jim Irizarry of Terrace Homes said the bigger problem for Half Moon Bay is that it has built a reputation that it is unfriendly to development. Most builders simply avoid building here, he said, but those that do brave City Hall have to run a review gauntlet that can take years.
“Anyone who wants to develop a private lot thinks twice before submitting plans because of the inanity you have to go through,” he said. “The process is redundant, costly and could very well be simplified.”
City Council members have acknowledged the process is difficult to understand and they have voiced interest in someday streamlining the process. But amid tough budget decisions, limited staff and many other difficult priorities, the council has not requested any immediate action on the task.
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