(Seguin) — The city of Seguin wants to make it easier for you to get your construction or renovation projects done. The city, for years, has had a reputation for having a process that makes it difficult for people to get the permits that they need to start a construction project.
City Manager Steve Parker says that they recognize that there is a problem, and they have been working to streamline the process. Parker says new City Building Official Oscar Arevalo has brought his experience with him from other cities, and he is working to help make some of these necessary changes.
“We’ve tried to look at ways to be more efficient. One of those is looking at software upgrades where everything is going to be online. People submit their permits online. It’s not an email system anymore
and so that way we will be more efficient,” said Parker.
Arevalo presented some of his recommended changes to the Seguin City Council on Tuesday night. He says the city has been using a complicated process that limited competition and made it harder for people to get the permits that they needed. He believes there was an unnecessary licensing requirement that was being utilized by the city that made the process more difficult for people to use. He says that process not only made it harder for the people seeking the permits, but it also placed a heavier burden on city staff, because of the number of inspections that were also required. He says, in some cases, these were redundant inspections, and it’s something that they no longer need to do.
“Sometimes when ordinances are created, there are certain things that are intended and they don’t quite work out so this licensing that has been created actually it was brought up from another city I believe, it’s kind of unique to Seguin. Other cities throughout the state don’t have that and looking at what was happening, there was some things that were not beneficial in a sense — one thing being the amount of labor that we were having to expend to manage this program and again with small resources like we have here, that made it very difficult,” said Arevalo.
This problem is not new. There have been tweaks made to the process over the years, but the complaints from contractors and others continued. They say it’s been too hard to get the permits and inspections needed to get the jobs done. Arevalo says they can’t ignore these concerns, and that’s why he’s been working to help streamline and overhaul the process. He says this is just the beginning, but they have to do something to make it easier for people to get this work done.
“A lot of input from citizens, from locals were telling us, ‘we are not being helped here. We are being hurt.’ When a citizen is having to pay extra because of a city ordinance, that is not a good thing. So, we were dealing with that situation and we get constant complaints from people that are having a hard time with that and as we looked at the situation, it was like okay, the state of Texas licenses all these other trades and again, we register them and basically work with them to get their permits but the general contractor, a specific situation to be created here, that again made it difficult and I don’t know if you know this but we have a reputation in the area that it is difficult sometimes to get permits, to get inspections and so on. A lot of it is the workload. A lot of it is because the process. It is complicated. You can’t just come in here and get a permit like you would in other cities. You have to go through this testing, go through this process and it actually makes it very difficult and I have many locals that have said that they lived here for many years and they can’t even get a permit,” said Arevalo.
Contractors and property owners have complained for a long time that the process felt like a gotcha game. People felt like they had a hard time getting permits, and when they did get permits, the inspection
process sometimes left them frustrated, because they didn’t feel like they were being treated fairly. Arevalo says these codes and inspections exist to make sure that people stay safe. He says they can
streamline and improve the overall process, while also making sure that these projects are done correctly.
“Don’t get the wrong idea that we are going to make it easier in the sense that we aren’t going to enforce code. I like to be known as the city that enforces codes but I’m going to be the first one to help you get there,” said Arevalo.
The city council actually applauded when Arevalo said that they were there to help people meet the city’s requirements.
The council approved the first reading of the changes to the ordinance. They say the changes will not only help improve the permit and inspection process, but it will also create greater competition for people seeking contractors. That’s because more individuals will now be able to register as a contractor with the city.