By Amanda Reavy

SHERMAN -- Additional inspections during construction and more stringent requirements for new-home specifications are among changes proposed to Sherman's building codes.

A committee of three village trustees was charged with examining and reworking the existing codes in order to ease drainage issues that have plagued Sherman in recent years.

"The number one priority for the village board in the next month or two is to implement and get a structure in place which provides for the oversight of looking at the final grade and occupancy permits, and to get more involved in the building process than (the village) has been in the past," Village President Trevor Clatfelter said.

Trustees are expected to vote on the new requirements during their July 21 board meeting. If approved, the change would take effect immediately. In the meantime, the committee is seeking feedback from local builders on the suggested changes.

A recent hydraulic study by Greene and Bradford engineers of Springfield also recommended an update of building codes.

Though Sherman has codes on the books, they were never enforced, Clatfelter said.

"You can't go out and implement something if you don't have the staff to do that, if you don't have someone to enforce what's getting done," he said.

This lack of oversight results in an "administrative nightmare" in which residents come to the village with drainage problems, and there's no clear way of determining who's at fault, Clatfelter said.

By restructuring costs, the village has a full-time administrator to assist the village engineer with overseeing new construction.

"It all boils down to common-sense oversight that in the end will save the village board and future administration money and future headaches," Clatfelter said.

Among proposed changes to the building code is the requirement of more details on building-permit applications, said village engineer David Booher of IE Consultants.

"We're going to be reviewing things like drainage onto and off of the lot, elevation of the top of the foundation, erosion control, sump pump discharge connections, that type of thing," he said.

"In the past, we've just done one inspection on the front end and verified that setback requirements are met. ... We now hope to do three different inspections."

If changes are implemented, Booher said village staff would also do a footing elevation inspection in the middle of the building process.

"That's really an attempt to verify the house elevation before any concrete's poured," he explained. "We've had trouble where houses got quite a bit higher than their neighbors, and we're trying to avoid that."

The final inspection will include examining the grading of the lot, erosion control, utility connections, the driveway connection, sidewalks, building exterior, etcetera.

Booher and village administrator John Swinford will have the primary responsibility for inspections.

Other changes to the building code will include foundation and walkout basement elevation requirements.

"Our hope is to eliminate several drainage problems -- one having to do with people filling in their yards and blocking drainage ways, (and) the other having to do with sump pumps and (the village) being able to participate in where a homeowner hooks a sump pump and give them some guidance on that," Booher said.

The village also wants to improve communication with builders, so that drainage requirements are understood.

Booher said a modest increase in fees would be needed, but that the increase should not slow home construction.

"We're still working on the fees. Fees are obviously going to go up a little bit to cover the cost of the additional review, but we haven't really nailed that down yet," he said.

The process to revamp the building codes started about a year ago, Booher said.

- Amanda Reavy, staff writer, can be reached at 788-1525.

Originally published by Amanda Reavy staff writer.

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