Purpose of Report: Stillwater Fire Department is proposing to change the current building plans review process.

Background: When Fire Marshal Trent Hawkins was promoted into the position, the Fire Chief directed him to review the established procedures and practices regarding building plans review in order to improve the department's customer service with the development community. The goal of the review process was to identify options that could be extended to builders, developers, and architects in order for them to receive approval of their building plans under the International Fire Code, which has been adopted by the city of Stillwater. The background material will cover the code currently in use by the department, the relationship between building design, plans review, fire code enforcement, and the existing plans review process.

The International Fire Code is developed and regularly reviewed by the International Code Council (ICC). The ICC was established in 1994 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing a single set of comprehensive and coordinated national model construction codes. The Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc., International Conference of Building Officials, and the Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. founded the ICC. The fire code provides a consistent set of requirements for code enforcement officials, architects, engineers, designers, and contractors. The current fire and building codes require a set of building plans be submitted to the Fire Department for approval before construction begins.  It is important to understand that building plans may be submitted to the Fire Department from a number of sources, including architects, engineers, designers, builders, owners, and contractors. To eliminate confusion throughout the remainder of this report the term "building representative" will mean a builder, owner, developer, architect, contractor, or engineer since any, or all, of these can be involved in submitting plans.  The term "design professional" is exclusive to architects, engineers, and state licensed systems design professionals.

The design professional is responsible for designing a building that meets all codes; it is not the Fire Department's responsibility.  The Fire Department conducts a plans review to determine if the building meets the intent and design criteria contained in the fire code. At the end of the review process, building plans are stamped and dated as "Approved". Approval signifies that the building appears to meet the code. Any code deficiencies must be corrected during building construction. At final inspection -- prior to the issuance of the Occupancy Permit -- the building must meet the fire, building, and mechanical codes of the City as well as the State of Oklahoma.  Other than giving direction and information to the design professional, the Fire Marshal's Office must remain outside the design process and act as a government agent, who is responsible for the inspection and approval of buildings that meet code requirements for public safety and protection.

Plans are normally submitted to the department and are worked into the existing scheduled work. Reviews are approved or returned for correction and/or more information. The timeframe established for plans review is 20 working days from the date the Fire Department receives the plans.  Small projects do not require a great deal of time; however, depending on the workload within the Fire Marshal's Office it may take a couple of weeks to complete the review.  Large projects can consume a great deal of time and it's not unusual for the builders to become anxious to receive approval.  Additionally, the plans review process can be extended when the Fire Marshal asks for additional information that is not submitted with the building plans or the building plans are incomplete.  For example, an architectural drawing may show an opening in a fire rated wall and not show any indication that the assembly being installed is rated for that type of installation.  Before the Fire Marshal can approve the plan, the building representative will have to submit the necessary documentation establishing the fire rating of the assembly.  It's not unusual for this turn around time to take a week or longer.

Fire Department officials realize planning for a building project starts long before plans are submitted to the department for review.  One of the goals identified early in this review process was to establish a climate of cooperation and communication with building designers while the plan was still in the conceptual stage.  The department wants to encourage "pre-design" conferences that bring the designers in to discuss their plans and ideas with the Fire Marshal.  It will eliminate one of the biggest problems -- occupancy classification of a building.  Occupancy classification drives all the requirements for special considerations and systems that are frequently overlooked by design professionals.  At this stage of the process, it is easy for the Fire Marshal's Office to assist the design professional with identifying the correct occupancy classification. This one step would help eliminate numerous problems further along in the process.

"Time is money" can come into play when it comes to a building's construction and financing. It is the Fire Department's intent to provide options for the building representative to use that helps them identify potential cost and balance the financial view. The department has looked at other communities in Oklahoma (Owasso, Broken Arrow and Ponca City) as well as other states such as Florida and Colorado. In the research, department officials found three approaches to plans review, no place use all three options.

Option 1 - Third Party Reviewers:  Qualified individuals with proper background and credentials perform a plans review.  The process entails the establishment of a list of companies or people approved by the Fire Department to do plans review for the jurisdiction. The building representative is free to contact any of the contractors on the list and negotiate a cost for the review.  Once the contractor approves a building plan, it is then submitted to the Fire Department along with a list of deficiencies found.  The Fire Marshal's Office will still need to conduct a cursory plans review to be familiar with the building layout and glean any information that needs to be entered into the Fire Department's building data system. The Fire Department examines the material to see that it is complete and usually approves it in a two or three-day turnaround.

Option 2 - Fast-Track Process:  An in-house process that moves a building plan approval through the established process at an accelerated rate. Communities with a Fast Track system have established additional fees for the service.  The fees are generally affixed to recoup additional costs from overtime and process disruption.

Option 3 - Other Government Agencies: Various communities accept plans reviewed and approved by other governmental agencies.  Normally, these are state agencies that can perform plans review on a contract basis.  For example, the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal's Office will perform plans review on a fee basis for building representatives.  The Stillwater Fire Department would accept the approval by the state since our local ordinances and codes mirror the State ordinances.  Once the approved materials were submitted to the Stillwater Fire Department, the cursory plans review by the department would result in a two or three-day turnaround.

To research options, the department held two different focus groups. One focus group targeted internal customers and the other focus group targeted external customers.

The focus group for internal customers was a small group consisting of city staff: Mary Rupp, who at the time was Acting City Manager; Dan Blankenship, Development Services Director; and Greg Armstrong, Building Official.  John Wesley, Development Services Deputy Director, was also invited but could not attend. The comments after the presentation were positive and helpful in modifying the presentation for the external customer focus group.  Dan Blankenship wrote: "I thought the presentation was generally very good and there are just a couple things that may need some further explanation."  Further, Mr. Blankenship stressed the Fire Department should clearly communicate that the existing process will not change; simply, the building representatives are being given greater choices.

The external focus group was made of the following local engineers and builders:

Mr. Gage attended the external Focus Group as the new City Manager and wanted to become familiar with the issues. Dan Blankenship attended the Focus Group to hear the concerns of the engineers and contractors. To summarize comments from the external Focus Group:

• The group expressed how good it is to see the Fire Department offer these options.
• It was good to see the contractors and engineers brought into the process and have direct input during the developmental phase.
• The Third Party Review and Fast Track option is a very good offer.
• The group thought an average citizen would think the City was just finding another way to make money instead of it being a choice on the part of the building representative.
• Group members were concerned on how long it would take until the Fast Track option would actually become workable.
• There was a discussion on the need for a 50% completion inspection by the Fire Marshal's Office to prevent problems at the finishing stages of construction. The department is supportive of including this requirement in the permitting process and will include it in the proposal to the City Commission.
• Members discussed at length the long-term storage of building plans.  While the department wants to encourage the electronic submittal of building plans for storage purposes, Mr. Gose pointed out that computer programs change continuously making obsolete formats hard to impossible to view in the future.  Mr. Gose indicated that he would prefer a plan on paper for reference purposes. Mr. Gose recommended that long-term storage and retrieval of paper building plans may best be handled by the city librarian.

Not all reviews are done at a municipal level, in some instances these reviews are done at the county level in other states.  Plans review options in different areas are based on the policies adopted by each individual jurisdiction with the exception of the State of Florida, which has state legislation for third party reviews.  Follow-up research included contacting comparable cities within the state for information regarding the review procedures those cities have in place.  All cities contacted within Oklahoma had review procedures comparable to our existing policy.  Contact was made with the Westminster Fire Department in Colorado, which provides an option for a "Walk Through" plans review. 

Discussion: Based on the options discovered through research the decision was made to pursue a policy that would provide building representatives with an accelerated means of plan review and allow for outside third party reviews.  Additionally our office will, at any time, schedule appointments with building representatives to discuss any code requirements for an upcoming project prior to a final submission to the city.  This would not be a full plans review, but a means to answer any questions they may have on special requirements for the proposed project.

The discussion will include four different elements that can be included in a building plan review process:

1. Offer building representatives a "Pre-Design" critique.
2. Provide a Fast Track plans review.
3. Provide for a Third Party review.
4. Discuss a State Fire Marshal review process.

In the past, the Fire Marshal's Office only reviewed plans submitted as a final development plan.  The plans needed to be complete and include the required submittals as outlined in the application packet.  At this point in the process, the building representative has acquired considerable expense in terms of architectural services in the building plans.  The Pre-Design is a scheduled appointment with the Fire Marshal's Office that will allow the building representative to present an initial design concept. General guidance can be provided regarding fire codes that relates to the project. Establishing the correct occupancy classification is critical to the design process.  The Pre-Design critique is intended to identify any problems or specific requirements early in the design stages that could minimize unnecessary design costs as the plans become more finalized.  This process would not eliminate the requirement of the project being submitted to the Development Review Process, so other departments can review the project addressing their concerns.  There would be no cost or impact to the City associated with this review.  If the Fire Marshal's Office can be brought into the design process early, numerous problems can be eliminated since the correct occupancy classification is identified. 

Fast Track would allow a representative to receive a plans review within 72 hours.  The building representative would have to request a Fast Track review and receive approval of the Fire Marshal.  Once approval is granted, the review would be conducted by line service firefighters who hold a degree in Fire Protection Engineering.  Personnel available for this process would be on a voluntary call back basis.  Firefighters performing this type of work would be acting as an extension of the Fire Marshal to provide the review.  This would allow the Fire Marshal to maintain pace with daily duties and still provide a rapid review for the customer.  The building representative would be responsible for the fee's associated with the Fast Track review.  Ultimately, it gives the representative the option to determine if the Fast Track option will save money over our standard plans review time frame.

Implementation of this option will require the firefighters who qualify to perform plans review to spend some time in the Fire Marshal's Office learning the internal process of plans review and documentation. Once the firefighter demonstrates sufficient confidence in the review process, the Fire Marshal can gradually diminish direct involvement. The training process may require some investment on the City's part for overtime and will have some "ramp up" time to become fully operational.  Once it is established, the department is proposing a fee schedule that should offset any costs: .008 cents per square footprint and $37 dollars an hour, with a two-hour minimum.  Total cost will vary depending on the length of time involved with the review.

The Third Party review would involve an outside entity performing a plans review for building representatives.  A list of acceptable reviewers that meet a minimum standard would be created by the Fire Marshal's Office and approved by the Fire Chief.  This standard will be created based on criteria and standards other communities adopted.  It will be the responsibility of the building representative to contact the appropriate consultant for their plans review and to negotiate the expense.  A complete set of the revised or approved plans would then be forwarded to the Fire Marshal's Office for final approval along with a statement from the reviewer that the plans comply with the existing codes for the City of Stillwater.  The Fire Marshal's Office will review the material for completeness and issue approval within three working days. 

The State Fire Marshal's Office has always been available to perform reviews.  Typically the state prefers a deferral from our office to them if a project falls under our jurisdiction. If a building representative so chooses, the Fire Department will issue a deferral to the state.  The Fire Marshal's Office will accept any plans reviewed by the state.  However, the state office typically has a 30-day turn-around; they do have a fast track option.  The state has a per foot charge for reviews with an additional per hour fee for fast track.  A complete set of State approved plans will be submitted to the Fire Marshal's Office.  The Fire Marshal's Office will review the material for completeness and issue an approval within three working days.

While using the state's review process, developers should be aware that some local ordinances could be more restrictive. The best way to avoid problems if this option is chosen is by a "pre-design critique" as discussed earlier.

• Direct and authorize the Fire Chief to develop the administrative procedures necessary to implement a revised plan review process that will include Fast Track Review, Third Party Review, and State Fire Marshal Review.
• Direct the Fire Chief to establish a requirement for a building construction inspection by the Fire Marshal's Office at 50% completion in the building permit process.

Budget Impact: There will be no budgetary impact except for implementing the Fast Track Plans Review Process. The costs involved would be the overtime hours for the initial training of fire personnel. The Fire Department would estimate 40 hours of training would be necessary at an approximate cost of $785 for each person selected to participate. Since the Fire Department only has only one firefighter with a fire protection degree, this cost is fairly limited.

Alternatives:

1. Accept the report and approve the Fire Department's recommendations contained in the report. 
2. Authorize the implementation of the plans review process in this commission report with City Commission modification.
3. Leave the current system in place.

Recommendation: The Fire Department recommends Alternative #1.

Recommended by:

___________________________
Jason Gage
City Manager