School expansion plans will be reviewed by Mt. Crested Butte

“We’ll get started right away”

Next week, the town of Mt. Crested Butte will start taking a close look at the plans for the Crested Butte Community School addition scheduled to begin construction this spring. On Tuesday night the town council signed a memorandum of understanding with the state, allowing the town to conduct building plan review and inspection services for the school addition. 

School construction projects in Colorado do not fall under the jurisdiction of the local town or county government they lie in, and can receive plan reviews and building inspections from an independent contractor.  When the RE1J School District began looking for someone to provide permitting and inspection services, the town of Mt. Crested Butte jumped on board.      
Through the memorandum with the state, the town’s building department is authorized to conduct plan reviews, issue building permits, conduct inspections and issue certificates of occupancy for the 56,302 sq. ft. addition to the school.
Mt. Crested Butte community development director Bill Racek said the plan review aspect of the town’s responsibility to the school doesn’t mean the town will have final say on building and zoning issues, such as requiring wood shingles or masonry. The town will however be checking for code issues like sprinkler requirements, alarm systems, electrical wiring, framing methods and insulation ratings.
Racek said the town stands to earn close to $60,000 by providing the services. Part of the money covers the building permit fees, which are based on square footage, and the rest goes to the design reviews and inspection. Racek said about $20,000 will be paid to local engineer Jerry Greene who will provide structural consulting.
In February, the town of Mt. Crested Butte filed an application with the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS) to provide the code enforcement services for the school addition. That application was approved in early March, pre-qualifying the town’s building department to provide the services.  
During a regular meeting on Tuesday, March 17, the town council unanimously approved the memorandum. Council members Bill Babbitt and Wendy Fisher were absent.
Councilmember Mike Kube said he wanted to be sure the town’s insurance policy would cover any potential problems that could arise through an error in the plan review or inspection.  
Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said the town checked with its insurance agency and they were covered.  
Council member Gary Keiser asked how the fees were determined, and Racek said they were set by the town.  “We’re not subsidizing the school or anything by doing this?” Keiser asked.
“I think it’s vice versa,” Racek said.  
“It’s revenue,” finance officer Karl Trujillo said.  
There was no further discussion.  
Prior to the meeting Racek said in order to provide the plan review and building inspection several members of the town’s community development department agreed to undergo additional training.  Department staffers Theresa Henry and Carlos Velado will be getting residential inspection certifications, and Racek must get a plan check certification.  Altogether, the training won’t cost the town more than $600.  
 Crested Butte building and zoning director Bob Gillie said he knew of the opportunity to provide the plan review services for the school, but decided not to pursue it due to the department’s full work load in dealing with the Foothills Annexation and Sixth Street Station – and the fact that the town’s building inspector recently resigned.  “I couldn’t see an upside to us doing it, particularly in my current world,” Gillie said.  
RE1J superintendent Jon Nelson says it doesn’t really matter to the school district who provides the code services, because the scope of the work is the same regardless.  “We would obviously like to have someone local doing it,” Nelson says, citing the economic benefit of keeping the district’s expansion and renovation funds in the local community, and the ease of communication with a local entity.    
Nelson says RE1J and the Blythe Group, which is the architect, will be working with the Mt. Crested Butte building department over the next few weeks.  
Racek says he’s expecting a copy of the district’s plans next week.  “We’ll get started right away.”