NKAPCommission

Ludlow City Council and the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission entered into an agreement effective March 15th that puts NKAPC in charge of the city’s building, electric, property maintenance, and zoning codes administration. Ludlow is the 14th Northern Kentucky jurisdiction to enter into NKAPC’s One Stop Shop program.

The program also provides staff support for Ludlow’s board of adjustment and code enforcement board. The program is built on NKAPC’s “critical mass” of professionals, providing economies of scale that are impossible for local jurisdictions to match and levels of service the local jurisdictions can’t afford.

“We’re pleased to welcome Ludlow to this program,” said Dennis Gordon, NKAPC’s executive director. “Mayor Wynn and City Administrator Brian Richmond have given us marching orders regarding the city’s priorities; we understand code enforcement is Job 1.”

Filing code enforcement complaints, seeking information about building or electric inspections, and searching for a property’s zoning classification is now one phone call away. NKAPC can be reached at 331-8980 between 8 and 5 Monday through Friday. Considerable information in this regard is also available at www.nkapc.org.

“The One Stop Shop program has helped a number of cities to increase service levels for their citizens and to reduce costs. We’re looking forward to providing those benefits to Ludlow and its citizens,” concluded Gordon.


Full Story >

NKAPC is nearing the end of a three-month project to inventory Elsmere’s signs, sidewalks, and streetlight assets. The sign inventory alone will assist the city in preparing for an upcoming Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) mandate.
 
This federal mandate requires all municipalities to have an asset management system in place by 2012, which will track  the retro reflectivity of their regulatory and warning signs. The first step in that process is to conduct an inventory to determine exactly what signs a city has, and precisely where they are located.

As part of this initial inventory, NKAPC is collecting condition data for each sign as well as whether the sign has reflective qualities at all. This will save the city time when they begin the second phase which requires retro reflectivity to be measured. “Elsmere won’t need to measure the reflectivity of the signs we have identified as being in poor condition or never being reflective to begin with,” said Scott Hiles, NKAPC’s deputy director for infrastructure engineering. “They can just slate them for replacement.”

In addition to signs, NKAPC inventoried all streetlight locations and all locations of sidewalks containing damage. The sidewalk inventory included an assessment of the repair area to determine the type and severity of each failure.

NKAPC used GPS technology to collect locations of these assets by walking 55 miles of city streets and to provide Elsmere all the information in a digital GIS map format.

“The end result of this effort will allow Elsmere to pull up a digital interactive map and see exactly where and what signs, sidewalk damage, and street lights are located within the city. They can then click on the digital asset to identify background information we collected about the asset while on-site” said Hiles.

Having that detailed information will allow Elsmere to determine budgetary needs and options available to them immediately and in the years to come.

NKAPC began this project in December 2011 and will finish later this month. “We’re on target to collect over 2,600 inventory points in total,” Hiles said. “We have the equipment and experience now that we’ve completed projects for Kenton County, the City of Covington, and the City of Elsmere” Hiles said. “We’re open to other projects that any other cities might want us to complete for them.”


Full Story >

As storm sirens blared Friday, March 2, Kenton County families lost their homes, barns, livestock and loved ones. A devastating F4 tornado hit Piner and leveled everything in its path. Within an hour of the storm, Jeff Bechtold, a senior building official at NKAPC arrived at Kenton County Emergency Management’s headquarters to offer assistance.

By 5:30AM the next morning, NKAPC had seven inspectors on the ground doing preliminary inspections on the storm-ravaged dwellings. “It was clear from the start that we were going to need assistance from our GIS department with maps containing the building layers so we could see where each building was located and which ones were in the storm’s path,” stated Brian Sims, Deputy Director for Building Code Administration.

Trisha Brush, Deputy Director for GIS Administration and her team created maps of the affected area with parcel lines, addresses, and building footprints. They worked all day Saturday to assemble seven sets of 54 maps for each inspection team, and deliver them to out-of-town EMS support teams in Piner.

Fire Chief Jason Schleue with Piner-Fiskburg Fire District stated, “The NKAPC was a great asset during this event. Due to the already-provided and on-hand maps that we had here at the firehouse we were able to start operations. Then when more maps were needed, NKAPC staff were here immediately to see what we needed and made sure we got it right away. The Piner-Fiskburg Fire District and community appreciate all the help from NKAPC.”

NKAPC’s building department had four inspectors and commandeered two inspectors from Boone County and one from Independence to conduct preliminary inspections on March 3. They assessed a few hundred structures in the area and classified 88 as uninhabitable with an additional 279 as being affected. Steve Hensley, Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in Kenton County stated, “The knowledge and expertise of these individuals was very valuable, as we conducted structural inspections and damage assessments”.

Inspectors returned to Piner later that week and tagged each structure according to one of three categories: habitable, limited entry, or uninhabitable. During immediate post-recovery efforts, NKAPC also assigned one of its administrative assistants to address questions from storm victims. The building department is now pursuing more in-depth inspections on an as-needed basis.

“Again I want to commend the NKAPC for the assistance they have and continue to provide to the residents of Kenton County. In my eyes, this agency and its staff members have performed over and beyond the call of duty throughout this event,” Hensley stated.

NKAPC waived all building and HVAC permit and inspection fees, as well as all electrical permits until June 4, 2012. Electrical inspections will still need to be paid to IBI.


Full Story >

NKAPC, the City of Covington, and the Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement Board all contributed to a joint effort recently to provide an important educational opportunity to local code enforcement board officials.

On March 24 continuing education geared towards new and long-term code enforcement board members was held at the NKAPC office. Twenty-four people from ten jurisdictions attended the training. Presenters included; Stacy Tapke, Edmondson Law; Alex Mattingly, City of Covington; and Martin Scribner, AICP, NKAPC deputy director for current planning.

Since enabling legislation was passed in 1996, most municipalities in Kenton County have formed code enforcement boards to help strengthen their city codes and keep zoning enforcement issues out of the courts. Unlike their counterparts on other planning-related boards, members of code enforcement boards are not required by Kentucky Revised Statutes to get a prescribed amount of continuing education, sometimes making it difficult to offer any training at all. This leaves them at a definite legal disadvantage, and could also cause procedural issues. The training was designed to address both of these issues and make sure members know what they can and cannot do as board members.

Topics covered the history and purpose of code enforcement, the creation and organization of code enforcement boards, due process and hearing procedures, and how citations are issued. Legal issues, such as burden of proof, taking evidence, deliberation, decisions of the board and findings of fact, were also discussed.

A mock hearing was held using training attendees as board members and NKAPC staff as property owners and evidence presenters. This exercise demonstrated how an actual hearing should be run and gave a feel for how other boards conduct their hearings. Staff and presenters provided feedback to let the board members know what they were doing correctly and what might be done differently.

A video recording of this training is available to Kenton County and Cold Spring board of adjustment jurisdictions. New board members or members who were unable to attend the training are invited to check out a copy from the NKAPC office.

Feedback from attendees was positive and staff already has several requests to borrow the video or to provide another training opportunity in the near future. Attendee Frank Henn said, “It was interesting to see how other cities structure their hearings, and that the end result appears to be the same. I learned some things I didn’t know and overall found the class helpful and interesting. Job well done.”


Full Story >

Staff in NKAPC’s current planning and building codes departments have increased substantially the number of zoning and building permits available on a walk in/walk out basis. This achieves a long-held goal of the organization’s annual work program.

“What this means is that a permit that used to take a couple days to process, can be completed now while you wait… if there are no extenuating circumstances,” said Martin Scribner, AICP, NKAPC’s deputy director for current planning. His team manages zoning permits.

Brian Sims, CBO, NKAPC’s deputy director for building codes administration, says, “If a licensed contractor comes in for an HVAC replacement or new installation permit, we review the application for minimum code requirements and issue the permit if everything meets code.”

Sims says electrical permits are also available on a walk-in/walk-out basis as long as all necessary information is submitted at the time of application. This includes workers compensation and occupational license information.

The primary catalyst for this increased efficiency is greater staff coordination and a staffing change that moved Mike Carpenter from the building codes department to current planning. Carpenter is both a certified zoning and building inspector, which means he can review a variety of applications.

“Now, if you’re building something that doesn’t require a building permit—like building a fence under six feet, or making some electrical upgrades, or putting in an above-ground pool or patio, or making a change of use (ownership)—we can process that on a walk-in, walk-out basis,” said Scribner. “Mike’s two hats and our greater coordination between departments have really helped us speed up the process.”

Full Story >