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Building official urges code updates and digital permitting to speed reviews and reduce printing costs
Summary
John Gunn (Brown & Associates), serving as the town’s contracted building official, urged moving to the 2024 building code when feasible and described the planned implementation of a digital permitting system to reduce manual plan handling and printing costs.
John Gunn, the town’s contracted building official from Brown & Associates, told the council that the building department processed roughly 75 permits in fiscal year 2024–25 (single‑family, remodels, solar, pools, etc.) and completed about 20,000 square feet of new single‑family construction.
The presentation is important because staff said updating the town’s building code cycle (currently 2018) to a more recent model would align Carefree with industry practice and that a completed digital permitting system will reduce printing costs and accelerate plan review.
Gunn described workload pressures: a rising share of owner‑builder applicants who need more staff time for guidance, and an active inspection schedule that can include multiple concurrent inspections and reinspections per day. He recommended updating the building code to the 2024 cycle as a reasonable goal and said many municipalities skip a code cycle in practice; he noted doing so still requires review of local exceptions and ordinances.
On digital permitting, staff stressed the benefit to applicants and reviewers: the current paper workflow requires repeated printing and hand‑routing; digital submittal will let staff perform parallel plan reviews, reduce reprinting costs and improve turnaround. Gunn and planning staff said they plan careful onboarding and trial runs to reduce implementation errors and will not rush the system live without staff training and testing.
Gunn also recommended moving toward the 2024 code cycle and said an implementation goal for code updates and the digital platform would be pursued in fiscal year 2025–26, but staff cautioned timing depends on training, consultant support, and procurement.
