Permits made simpler

The Onslow County Health Department's construction permitting process has been streamlined.

In May, several homebuilding and related businesses aired their grievances to the Onslow County Board of Health concerning a requirement for submission of floor plans to the Environmental Health Department and permit approval processing times. Both of which, they said, were slowing down the homebuilding process.

The No. 1 grievance was the Health Department's requirement that builders give a copy of a home's proposed floor plan to the Environmental Health Department for review. This was so the department could make sure the number of bedrooms the builder listed in a permit application was the number of bedrooms being shown on the floor plan.

"We don't want to restrict the homeowner from getting the house he wants, but we do want to comply with the permit," said Marilyn Bunce, president of the Onslow County Homebuilders Association. "If the land is suitable for a three-bedroom house then that's what we're going to build."

After about three weeks, both groups were able to come to an agreement to help fix the problem. The Health Department completely eliminated the need for contractors to submit a floor plan to the department before the issuance of a construction authorization, Bunce said.

"It worked out really well," she said. "It's cut in half the time it takes for us to get a construction authorization."

Michelle Briese, a real estate agent with Century 21 American Properties, said the change has sped up the process considerably.

"From the point of us pulling a permit to start building a house to the time we can actually get a house to closing it has sped up our process about two months because they had us tied up for a month close to the beginning with paperwork and then near the end with paperwork," she said.

On the Health Department side, the process was relatively uncomplicated, said Jon Harrison, director of environmental health.

"There weren't too many hurdles to overcome to get the changes made on our part," Harrison said. "We certainly had to touch base in several areas with several people to make sure we could affect some of the changes that we wanted to make, and then we had to make some notifications and so forth so that we could get these changes made."

Several other changes were made to help streamline the permitting and homebuilding processes.

Previously, septic installers were required to call the Health Department between 8 and 9 a.m. to order inspections for that day.

"The phone lines were completely clogged for an hour in the morning," Bunce said.

Now they have instituted a policy allowing them to call the day before. A change has also been made to the policy regarding septic system final inspections.

In the past, septic inspectors would complete the final inspection but the operating permit was not readily available for the contractor. The inspector had to return to the office and input the information into the computer system before issuing the permit. During the process, permits were getting misplaced and the entire process was taking longer than it should have, Bunce said.

Now, the permit is available upon completion of the inspection.

"They will give you a copy of the operating permit in the field when they do the inspection ... so the general contractor has the copy of the operating permit and can call for the (certificate of occupancy) inspection," Bunce said.

The outcome has been positive for both groups involved, their members say.

"Communication was the key to this whole thing," Delma Collins, Onslow County commissioner member of the Board of Health, said. "Things seem to be going in a direction where everybody's happier."

Contact Jacksonville/Onslow government reporter Molly DeWitt at 910-219-8457, or mdewitt@freedomenc.com.