At Municipal Code Consulting, LLC, our foci are:
The community
Municipal Code Consulting, LLC was founded in an effort to help understaffed building, fire, and health departments across New England. Due to a lack of resources and code-required permitting timelines, many permits are issued without adequate plan review. This can lead to significant cost increases and timing delays on projects, as a result of code violations observed in the field, which should have been caught before a permit was issued.
Municipal Code Consulting, LLC staff and network of affiliated code experts have the experience and resources available to perform these plan reviews, and any other needed departmental services, in a timely manner. Upon permit issuance, both the owner and the code official(s) know that the plans have been thoroughly reviewed, and that the likelihood of inspection-related change orders is minimized as long as the project is built in accordance with the approved plan(s).
Municipal Code Consulting, LLC plan reviewers, and other technical staff, use best practices in plan review, including: electronic submission through Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box; embedding comments onto PDF versions of plans, in addition to a summary letter; performing reviews utilizing multiple computer monitors; and applying technical-level review to building system designs.
The profession
In recent years, the International Code Council and the National Institute of Building Sciences issued a series of reports and statements related to the future of the code official profession. Resulting from surveys, these two organizations found that a large percentage of current code officials will be retiring within a short period of time; and that those municipal positions will become increasingly difficult to fill, as college graduates are not showing an interest in joining the ranks of the code officials. The inability to find qualified code officials to serve as municipal employees is beginning to leave some jurisdictions with the difficult decision of transitioning to private firms to take over those departmental services.
Municipal Code Consulting, LLC wants to be a partner with code officials and community leaders across New England by training the next generation of code officials, and ensuring that they possess the necessary skills needed to be successful municipal officials. This will include providing internships, co-ops, and field practice to all levels of post-secondary students who have an interest in municipal service. Municipal Code Consulting, LLC will help these future leaders develop their skills in plan review, field inspection, administration, and the political expectations associated with municipal service.
Once the municipality finds the qualified full-time staff that they need, Municipal Code Consulting, LLC plans to resign from their interim role and continue with our goals of supporting municipal officials and governments in providing high-quality services to building, fire, and health departments.
The businesses
Many large projects take months (if not years) of site plan review and special permitting before the building, fire, and health departments are given final construction drawings for review and permit issuance. In some instances, the municipal departments required to review these drawings are understaffed, and unable to perform the needed review immediately; thus, potentially further delaying project schedules. In these instances, municipal permit-granting authorities will sometimes offer, or authorize, the use of third-parties for plan review (and sometimes, inspections). These can save the applicant significant amounts of time. They can also save money, in the form of reductions in the number of inspection-related change orders.
Municipal Code Consulting, LLC strives to be transparent in our pricing structure, so that applicants are able to budget accordingly for their projects. Our fee is typically less than one percent (1%) of the total construction cost. Included in that fee is: quick turn-around of initial plan review findings; each plan review is overseen by at least one of the firm's principals, all of whom have over a decade of experience in code enforcement and/or design; and electronic communication with the Municipal Code Consulting, LLC team.
