Buildings and Regulations Agency

Mission Statement

The Building and Regulations Department of Hopetopia’s mission intends to enhance the lives of community members by efficiently and effectively reviewing building proposals, ensuring structures are adhering to municipal codes, and fostering citizen engagement to better refine department practices.

Recent News

Note

10/3/2023 In conjunction with city-wide efforts to improve services, Buildings and Regulations has identified three performance goals that it will begin tracking and reporting publicly. 1. Increase the number of permits issued (average number of submitted proposals is 30 per month in each ward). 2. Improve the proportion of permits approved after first review. 3. Increase the percentage of plans approved in the first review.

Note

9/27/2023 The BRA chief notes she does not have the staff necessary to address these concerns in a timely manner. Similarly, developers have noted that delays in plan approvals from the BRA have driven up the cost of building throughout the city.

Operations

Who We Are

Table 1 provides an overview of our current workforce by position and by select characteristics.

Table 1: Buildings and Regulations Agency taffing Descriptive Statistics (FTE)

	Managers	Inspectors	Central Office	Review Board	Total
White	12	23	17	7	59
Non-white	3	20	12	6	41
Male	6	19	20	4	49
Female	9	25	6	9	48
Non-resident	4	17	20	0	42
College degree+	14	36	26	13	90
Total	14	43	29	13	100

How We’re Doing

Table 2 captures our agency’s current performance toward our newly adopted goals separately by ward.

Table 2: Buildings and Regulations Agency Performance Indicators by Ward

	NW	SW	NE	SE
Number of permits issued (per month)	3	14	18	20
Percentage of Plans Approved in First Review	10	88	56	75
Total Number of Safety Inspections (per month)	10	25	80	55

Current Operations Budget

Table 3 lays our our FY23 operations budget. The mayor proposed a 3,981,000 increase in our budget. After meeting with low-income property owners and renters in subsidized housing in the Southwest quadrant, we have prioritized code enforcement in our allocation of the new funds to better enable the recovery or demolition of abandoned structures. We have also increased our staffing for proposal review after consultation with local developers and construction companies. We address these needs by expanding our overtime budget by 1,500,000 and adding 2,000,000 in Pay-Other for hiring external consultants.

Table 3: Budget Overview FY23

(a) Buildings and Regulations Operations (in 1,000s)

Buildings and Regulations Agency	12,498
Safety Inspections	2,940
Code Enforcement	7,350
Proposal Review	2,208

(b) Buildings and Regulations Expenditures (in 1,000s)

Buildings and Regulations Agency	12,498
Personnel FT Pay	5,585
Pay - Other	3,334
Fringe benefits	1,579
Overtime	2,000

FY22 Operations Budget

Table 4 provides an overview of the FY22 budget for Buildings and Regulations broken out by operations and the source of the expenditure.

Table 4: Budget Overview FY22

(a) Buildings and Regulations Operations (in 1,000s)

Buildings and Regulations Agency	4,200
Safety Inspections	1,000
Code Enforcement	3,000
Proposal Review	200

(b) Buildings and Regulations Expenditures (in 1,000s)

Buildings and Regulations Agency	4,200
Personnel FT Pay	2,585
Pay - Other	977
Fringe benefits	579
Overtime	14