An increase in construction activity and rainfall is driving an increase in the number of stormwater management inspections of construction sites. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) retains full enforcement ability and conducts random site visits, but must be accompanied by County inspectors. State Code requires us to inspect all open land disturbing permits every two weeks during active construction periods and within 48 hours of each runoff-producing-event. We ensure compliance with these mandated environmental inspection requirements through the use of third party engineering personnel that are procured on a four-year contract. Fees paid by the landowners are used to pay for the third party engineering services.
$90,000 in additional budget for engineering services is expected to be needed to carry us through to the end of June 2018. These additional costs will be paid for through an increase in revenue associated with the increased volume of inspections. To be clear, there is no fee/rate increase being proposed at this time to accompany this budget adjustment. The revenue adjustment is simply a revenue increase due to increased volume of inspections.
Staff requests that the Board increase Zoning’s management consulting services budget to account for the increased inspection services that will be required. Again, this cost will be funded through increased inspections revenue.