Building department warns of maintenance cuts, reports demolition with live utilities and asbestos; seeks enforcement tools

Dan Bennett, Brookline’s Director of Building Operations, told the Select Board on April 15 that the department has made recent staffing gains and is pursuing town goals on electrification and building‑system upgrades, but warned that proposed cuts to school repair and maintenance funding would erode progress.

Bennett described recent hires including a local inspector and an HVAC technician dedicated to town buildings, plus an energy management specialist. He highlighted capital projects either completed or underway — Driscoll School geothermal brought online, Pierce School demolition and new construction nearing foundation completion, and fire stations 1 and 4 moving toward all‑electric designs — and said the department must scale operations as building complexity grows.

Bennett and Deputy staff briefed the board on the town’s code‑adoption calendar. The state’s 10th edition building code will take effect in June; the tighter stretch energy code and new local requirements have increased plan‑review and enforcement workloads and the department seeks funding for an additional energy‑management specialist and a zoning/code‑enforcement officer to reduce backlog.

He warned the Select Board that a proposed $600,000 cut in the maintenance/repair line that had been discussed by the School Committee would jeopardize preventive maintenance across school buildings. Bennett and other town leaders said, if maintenance funds are reduced, deferred maintenance will grow and future capital costs will rise. Select Board members said they would be reluctant to accept structural reductions in school building maintenance without addressing how those costs would be made up elsewhere.

Bennett also described a demolition incident on Beverly Road that prompted an immediate inspection. An unlicensed contractor demolished a house while electricity and water remained on, and inspectors and first responders discovered asbestos and a live electrical hazard. The site was turned over to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for asbestos mitigation; Bennett said DEP issued a $1,500 fine for the asbestos violation and the town building office is pursuing its own enforcement remedies. He said building fines under state code can run up to $1,000 a day per violation and zoning fines up to $300 a day, and that stop‑work orders and civil liens are tools the town can use to compel compliance.

Select Board members pressed Bennett about deterrence and whether the town’s fines are sufficient; Bennett said the department can seek daily fines, stop work orders, and, where necessary, pursue liens that run with the land to ensure payment. Town counsel noted the town would defend its permitting decisions in court where warranted. Bennett said the demolition contractor had done no prior work in Brookline, that the town had posted the property after the event and that DEP required a licensed contractor to complete cleanup before the town would accept an after‑the‑fact demolition permit.

On permitting and workflow, Select Board members urged improvements to the town’s Accela permitting system and faster certificate‑of‑occupancy turnarounds, noting that delays impose costs on businesses and building owners. Bennett said the department already issues temporary or partial certificates of occupancy in some cases and will continue to streamline reviews where possible; he cautioned that new local reviews (tree bylaw, demolition review, preservation commission comments, and stretch energy) add technical steps that can extend plan review times.

Bennett ended by noting that full electrification of town buildings remains expensive — estimates for complete fleet building electrification run into the tens of millions — and that planning will require long‑term capital commitments and interdepartmental cooperation.