PERMITTING IS AN ARBITRARY PROCESS BUT GREAT REVENUE SOURCE

PERMITTING IS AN ARBITRARY PROCESS BUT GREAT REVENUE SOURCE

By Domenick J. Maglio Traditional Realist

Regulation on American business has been shown to significantly drive up the cost of a product. Trump’s executive order to negate many regulations has been a boon to the business sector. Every government mandate that regulates how the business should be run adds additional cost. Government does not know what is better for a business than the businessman, but local government bureaucrats are empowered to enforce regulations to slow down too rapid growth and maximize revenue for the government.

The same need to control growth and increase revenue has afflicted our home building market. The prices notably rise even during low demand. A major factor for this increase was attributed to expenditures to meet building codes and an increase in the bureaucratic army of the local building department. Not only are there specifications for every building material put in the home but how that item has to be installed.

Our homes used to be our castles as far back as the Middle Ages. Currently the popular sentiment has shifted with the assistance of government propaganda from the family’s private property to the local government’s need to protect them and others from “safety” hazards they arbitrarily feel might happen in the future. The government continues to creep even into the sanctity of our “castles” supposedly to protect citizens from improving this significant asset, their homestead for their own good and “safety.”

In the recent past in unpopulated areas people did not have to get permission to add to their home, renovate the interior or even paint.  Government required permits were very limited in scope until local government realized the potential revenue source of permitting every aspect of people’s homes. The permitting department like many others expanded under the guise of public safety. Presently the mandated codes and building requirements conflict and have little legitimate justification.  Some counties have created their own local codes while others use state and national ones.  An example is seen in something as simple as doors.  A front door with steps must swing inward while a state hurricane mandate requires the outside doors swing out, which is exactly the opposite. In the first case the person is supposed to be able to see the steps while the second example the doorjamb will prevent the door from being blown in.

Another contradictory regulation is that all doors that separate a garage from the interior of the home need to have a self-closing hinge to prevent fumes from entering the interior of the house. However, this requirement caused an uproar after being implemented. The practical problem is that the family cannot easily carry in groceries or other objects from the garage as the door constantly closes between trips. Two different rationales for the same garage door results in frustration.

Making the building regulation process more confusing is when two government entities have contradictory requirements. A local city historical requirement to any buyer is to keep an older house in the exact style of a certain time period, while the county bureaucrats in the building department demand updating the house to modern standards. What does the homeowner do? Put in an old-fashioned jalousie window or hurricane impact ones? These determinations should be hammered out clearly before any citizen has to face this “Catch 22.”

When it comes to FEMA regulations many are arbitrary and left to interpretation by a FEMA representative and the local building department. The choice of the flood map in a particular area determines the classification of the property. The capriciousness in the interpretation of the map creates an issue. Changing department heads, supervisors, or a rogue inspector who makes bizarre  interpretations of the statute can drive a new homeowner crazy.

Home ownership and upgrading one’s home instead of being encouraged have become a nightmare. Our local, state and federal regulatory agencies need to be accountable to the people they serve.  The permitting department’s army should not be used to build a bureaucratic kingdom for their political advancement and for increasing their authority, salary or retirement package.

It is time to reevaluate building and upgrading a home. Home buyer, builders, government officials, concerned and affected citizens should have an open forum to simplify and discard non-sensible, ineffective or conflicting regulations. The red tape of the government bureaucracy should be reduced by attrition and the return of freedom to property owners. Government workers should assist homeowners not place obstacles to impede their freedom to improve their own property.

Bureaucrats, keep your hands off the sanctity of a person’s home. It is our human right.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.