City staff to align building permit valuations with International Code Council in housekeeping ordinance

City Administrator Jim Clifford and city building staff told the North Augusta City Council study session on Feb. 24 that an upcoming housekeeping ordinance would remove an outdated valuation modifier from the municipal code and bring the city's building permit fees into line with published International Code Council (ICC) valuations.

Tom, a city building official, said the change is technical and administrative: the city had been using a 0.85 modifier to lower ICC valuations in the code, although staff already adjusted practice in the 2024 budget to use the ICC figures. "This is just to strike that 0.85 and replace it with 1 in footnote b," Tom said, describing the code correction.

Clifford told council members the budget previously approved moving the city's practice to match ICC valuations; the ordinance would update the code text to match that earlier budget decision. "So that we will base our building valuations on the exact figures that are published by the International Code Council," Tom said.

Staff characterized the measure as a cleanup item rather than a new fee increase and said it was approved in the budget process and is now being reflected in the code. Council members did not debate the fundamentals of the change at length during the study session.

The ordinance (2025-06) is scheduled for first reading at a future council meeting.

Ending: The city will present the ordinance for formal action at the regular council meeting cycle; staff framed the change as aligning written code language with the revenues and fee schedules already adopted in the 2024 budget.