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DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS The Department of Buildings administers and enforces the Zoning Ordinance, the Housing and Slum Clearance Code, the Housing P.emolition Ordinance, the Georgia Safety Fire Law and the Elevator Ordinance. property. Its responsibilities generally regulate the private use of private The manner in which the department does its job and works with other agencies both in and out of the City government will be reflected in the quality of total community development. Staffing, organization, and records must be so developed as to have flexibility, comprehensiveness, and sesnitivity to the needs and requirements of area action. ), The Department of Buildings has been the subject of extensive review and reorganization to better prepare it for its role. of the reorganization is now in the final stage. Implementation It would be inappropriate to attempt to evaluate performance. Organization In 1964, Public Administration Service prepared a survey report relating to the consolidation of inspectional services in the City of Atlanta. This report reviewed and identified all inspectional functions carried out among several departments within the City government. The major attention of the report was focused on the Department of Building Inspections . The findings of the report led to recommendations for an expended department of �Page Two Building Inspections to include plumbing inspection (from the Construction Department), electrical inspection (from the Department of Electricity) and housing code inspection (from the Department of Urban Renewal). adopted the full report. The City The Departments of Electricity and Urban Renewal were abolished when their few remaining responsibilities were transferred to other departments and agencies. No one lost his job or was reduced in salary due to the implementation of these recommendations. Consolidation began in July of 1964. In the beginning little more could be accomplished than to effect a legal change. The various offices l were spread from the third floor of City Hall to the thirteenth floor. In late summer 1965, one year later, major office realignments were made at City Hall which resulted in the Department of Buildings occupying all of the eighth and ninth floors. Further office assignments were made in 1966. Physical provisions were made for a central records and statistical unit and the central permits desk. Staffing for the Records Bureau was provided by clerical .. 'h, • ' personnel formerly assigned to each of the inspection division . Staffing 13 The Department has a technical staff of 72 and a clerical staff of 16. The technical staff includes the department head (Building Official), an assistant Building Official , two architect engineers, ten plumbing inspectors ; �Page Three ten electrical inspectors, two elevator inspectors, nine heating and ventilating inspectors and engineers, sixteen building inspectors and J ,.,~,J . . 0 i f.teen persons engaged in housing code enforcement. either registered engineers or architects. Six technicians are Most of the specialized inspectors are licensed in their trades. Work Program Inspectional services are provided to insure the health, safety and general welfare of the community. Building inspections insure that structures will be built, repaired and altered in a-ccordance with accepted standards. Plumbing inspections insure that water and sewer facilities are installed in a manner that will protect the occupants health. Heating and ventilating inspections as sure that heating units are installed properly and include provisions for smoke abatement in order to reduce air pollution. Electrical inspections insure that wiring installations will reduce fire hazards. Housing inspections differ from the above in that the housing code is concerned with buildings that were built under former regulations (usually these required lower standards of safety and sanitation). It is the general purpose of housing inspe ction to upgrade the standard of liv ing in e x isting housing. Zoning ordinance enforcement activities support the r e gulations of land use , control of h e ight and bulk of buildings, establish area re qui re m e nts fo r ya r ds and other ope n spaces. �Page Four The volume of work undertaken by the department may be measured by the value and number of building permits issued in the past ten years. Value of Building (Milli ons of Dollars) Year 76 59 59 10.8 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 Number of Permits 10,613 9,682 7, 791 8,327 8,728 114 91 96 8, 311 10, 9, 9, 9, 117 109 150 158 357 168 142 Building C o des The C ity of Atlanta p r ov ides through the s e vari ous c odes a hi gh standard of constru c t ion. The N ational Building Cod e is ba s ically us e d for building.( :n 1965 a r e v ise d National Ele ctri cal C o d e wHi will be adopte d by the C it0 C urre ntly the C ity is us i n g the existin g National E l e c trical C ode w ith som e l ocal amendment s . d e vel o ping a H e a t ing C o de. e, i s sue d which The C i ty is a l e ader i n This code has rec e ive d n ati ona l acclaim and has b een wid e ly a dopte d by othe r citie s . The Plumbing and the H o using C o d es a r e not bas e d aft e r any mode l co d e , b u t do incorpo rate high s t a n dards. ,. f ( i , l �Page Five Gene rally, the codes provide for eight inspections to be made during actual construction. A final inspection is made upon completion of all work to assure conformance to land use, type of building, area of lot and other requirements of the zoning and building ordinances and codes. A certificate of occupancy is is sued at that time. Q.tJ eJJJ e,, Budget and ~ ~ The department collects in fees enough funds to cover all the exp e ns e s of ope ration . A recent surve y of m uni cipal building inspe ction practices indicated that 72 per cent of 101 cities ove r 100, 000 population r e c e i ve 75 per c ent or more of the ir oper ating budge t fro m fe es. Th irty - t wo p er c ent of these cities rece i ve 100 per cent o r more of thei r operating budget from fees. Public C on veni e nc e The con solidation of i n spe ctional s e r v ice and a central building p ermits desk serves as a p ub li c convenience. can get all b uilding permits at one l ocation. A contractor o r i n d ividua l He must, however, still go to several other loca tions within C ity Hall for othe r basi c information a n d p e rmits. Water permits, water meters and location of water facilities are obtained from the Water D epartment; sewer permits, street opening permits, sewer assessments, curb cut permits and l ocation of sewer facil ities are �Page Six obtained from the Construction Department. Applications for rezoning and street numbers are provided at the Planning Department. Copies of the Zoning Code are purchased from the City Clerk as are licenses to engage in the construction business. Complete consolidation of these information and permit issuing functions requires considerable study and would effect changes that cross over departmental lines. �