P&Z to revisit county building codes
The biggest danger in building homes not to code in rural areas is dangerous or improper electrical wiring. The homes not built to standards in the rural areas may also have structural, plumbing or other mechanical problems, Mohave County Planning and Zoning Director Chris Ballard told the commissioners. Improper grading is also another issue, creating excessive dust and dangerous conditions. Some homes are being built on unstable housing pads that have been graded. Builders also sometimes block stream washes after grading, potentially causing flooding for a neighbor.
P&Z to revisit county building codes
By JIM SECKLER/The Daily News
Saturday, March 10, 2007
KINGMAN - The Mohave County Planning and Zoning Commission will again discuss Wednesday extending building codes throughout the county.
At a January workshop, planning and zoning building official Darrell Riedel showed a slideshow of haphazardly built homes built outside the urban overlay areas. Without stricter building codes, illegal and dangerous building practices could take place, Riedel noted.
One option is to have only large proposed subdivisions in White Hills, Meadview, Golden Valley and near Kingman included in the urban overlay zone. Other areas included would be Colorado City, Yucca and the Beaver Dam/Littlefield area of the Arizona Strip.
One commissioner did not want the building codes extended countywide but large, master-planned subdivisions should be automatically included.
Another commissioner favored extending the codes throughout the county because a rural home could catch on fire from faulty electrical wiring and cause a large brush fire, costing the county money or lives.
The biggest danger in building homes not to code in rural areas is dangerous or improper electrical wiring. The homes not built to standards in the rural areas may also have structural, plumbing or other mechanical problems, Mohave County Planning and Zoning Director Chris Ballard told the commissioners.
Improper grading is also another issue, creating excessive dust and dangerous conditions. Some homes are being built on unstable housing pads that have been graded. Builders also sometimes block stream washes after grading, potentially causing flooding for a neighbor.
In the rural overlay areas, builders only need to show the size of the structure in relation to the property. No floor plans and no construction details are needed, Ballard said.
One developer in Centennial Park told the county he was building a single-family home when it was actually a multi-family apartment complex.
The county budgeted several additional building inspectors this fiscal year to handle the workload if building codes are expanded. There are seven general inspections conducted by the county during the building process.
The issue was brought up to deal with several large proposed subdivisions in White Hills, Golden Valley and near Kingman. Large-scale communities are also proposed for rural areas in Wikieup, the Arizona Strip and Sterling off Interstate 40.
Of the large master-planned communities only Golden Valley South, Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes' subdivision, was recently added to the urban overlay area.
In the past, much of the county's rural areas included scattered mobile or manufactured homes for single-family homes. With the proposed developments of the subdivisions, high-density urban growth is occurring in every area of the county, Ballard said.
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2007/03/11/news/local/local6.txt |