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77 the Board of County Commissioners . It is staffs recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners approve the referenced fee changes by adopting the attached resolution . • EXISTING PROCESS For new construction projects , the County currently issues a building permit and separate sub - permits for trade activity . Consequently , a minimum of six permits are issued for each new single - family house constructed in the county . These include a building permit. electrical permit , plumbing permit , insulation permit, mechanical permit. and roof permit. Although other permits , such as irrigation , fence, pool , burglar alarm or others , may be issued for a single - family residential project, the six permits referenced above are standard permits which are issued with each project. Because these six standard permits are required for every residential new construction project, it is possible to issue only one overall permit for such projects , instead of issuing six separate permits . The one overall permit is known as a combination permit. • COMBINATION ( COMBO) PERMIT As structured, a combo permit will authorize all standard (building, electric, plumbing, insulation , mechanical , and roof) building activity for residential new construction projects . For those types of projects, only the general/residential contractor will need to obtain a permit and pay permit fees , sub- contractors will not be required to obtain a separate permit. Other aspects of the building permitting/inspection system will remain the same . Consequently , sub-contractors will still use the AIRS system to schedule inspections for their work . The principal difference will be that inspections will be scheduled on the combo permit instead of on the separate sub-:permits as is done presently. To accommodate this change, computer system modifications have been made, and intemal procedures have been revised . For builders , however, the system should be essentially the same . With the combo permit system, the major benefit will be the reduction in permit volume . Instead of six permits being issued, six transactions being processed, and six permits being monitored for each residential new construction project, only one permit will be issued. That will significantly reduce building division front counter staff time and also reduce the time spent by sub-contractors in obtaining permits . On an annual basis , the combo permit system may reduce permit volume by more than 4, 000 permits . As a result, building division permit clerk activity should decline , and staffing levels should not need to be increased in the near future . • PERMIT FEES One impediment to instituting the combo permit system is the current building permit fee structure . While building permit fees are valuation based and determined by square footage , construction type . and standard square foot values by construction type, sub-permit fees are determined differently . In fact, each sub- permit type has a different fee calculation methodology . JUNE 199 2001 € - 76 -