Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Building Permits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission approves higher building-permit and inspection fees, effective July 2
Summary
Christian County commissioners approved increases to residential, accessory, manufactured-home, pool, demo, solar and technology permit fees, citing higher inspection costs and safety needs; the changes take effect July 2.
The Christian County Commission approved a package of higher building-permit and inspection fees after a presentation from the county's building-code board that cited inflation, travel costs and safety-related inspection work.
The board representative presented the changes and said, "Currently, our charge for residential permits is 35¢ per square foot" and recommended raising that rate "to 50¢." The board also proposed updating the commercial valuation reference to the 2024 International Building Code table while keeping the commercial rate at $3.75 per $1,000 of construction value.
Other recommended increases adopted by the commission include accessory-building inspection fees rising from $0.10 to $0.15 per square foot, manufactured-home permits increasing from $100 to $200, demolition permits from $50 to $75, and a $20-per-permit technology fee to help cover permitting software costs. The commission approved a new solar permit inspection fee of $75.
The board also recommended higher pool-permit fees to reflect multiple inspection trips and related electrical and bonding work; the commission adopted increases to $150 for above-ground pools and $300 for in-ground pools (the meeting transcript contained a likely typographic error listing the above-ground fee as "$1.50," which the board clarified in discussion as $150). A staff representative explained that inspections often require multiple trips across a 560-square-mile county and that travel and labor justify the higher charges.
Commissioners asked about enforcement and inspector consistency. A building official described the reinspection process and said reinspections are intended to discourage repeated scheduling when work is not ready; long travel (for example, 45-minute trips to remote towns) makes additional trips costly. The same official recounted a pool-safety incident to underscore why inspections matter: "I went to the sergeant... a 5-year-old boy drowned," he said, arguing that alarms and barriers can prevent such tragedies.
A motion to adopt the amended fee schedule passed by voice vote; the commission set an effective date of July 2 for the new fees. The transcript records a voice vote with commissioners saying "aye," but does not provide a roll-call tally.
