By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Slightly more home builders and property owners are opting out of Kootenai County's building permit process than not for single-family homes since that option went into effect 12 weeks ago.

David Callahan, the county's community development director, said last week that 107 applications for single-family homes have taken the opt-out route while 96 have sought the traditional building permit process.

"We're seeing about the same number of (traditional) residential permits as previous years, but we're getting the opt-outs on top of that," Callahan said. "It is the busiest year we've ever known as far as I can tell."

Callahan said the number of opt-out requests compared to the traditional building permit process is a surprise.

"During the original discussions, we thought that maybe (the opt-out applications) would be around 40 percent of the total," he said, adding that has been the number in other counties that offer the opt-out option.

Callahan declined to speculate if the number is high due to property owners thinking the opt-out route could be nixed after two new county commissioners take office in January.

"It would be interesting to see if the opt-out numbers normalize in future years, but we may never see how that would play out," he said.

Commissioners Bob Bingham and Marc Eberlein reached a compromise while approving the contentious opt-out option last spring, while Commissioner Chris Fillios wanted to maintain the status quo. Fillios will be the lone returning commissioner to the board in January.

Proponents of the opt-out praised the move that limits government. Opponents were concerned the option could lead to shoddy construction and make future homebuyers vulnerable. Under the opt-out option, homeowners still need to obtain plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits through the state.

In another move that limits government, commissioners recently opened the door for property owners to utilize private building inspectors and left the decision to do so up to Callahan. The idea was presented by Kirk Dehn, who formerly worked for the county as an inspector, Callahan said.

"The request was to allow private inspectors to be hired and paid by the owners who are building a home," Callahan said.

Results of the inspection would be given to the county, thereby eliminating the need for a county inspector on site.

Callahan said he wants to continue to use in-house inspectors for now.

"I'm concerned that there is no way of knowing the quality of work with outside inspectors," he said. "I don't like the idea of relying on people who are not my employees to inspect homes. I don't know if they'd always be telling me the truth. I don't want to put people's lives and safety in jeopardy."

Callahan said a possible positive for heading in that direction would be to speed up the inspection process.

The current turnaround time for inspections is about a week, a result that drew a "high five" from Bingham.

Callahan said morale in his department is also low and another major shift could add to that.

"That weighs heavy on me," he said.

Callahan said six staff members have moved on since the opt-out option was implemented.

"For a staff of 28, that's a lot," he said.

Callahan declined to discuss the reasons for the departures, stating it's a personnel matter.

Callahan said the county has contracted with private firms to perform plan reviews, but they haven't been used for inspections like in some other counties.

Inspections by private firms are allowed under county law. Eberlein said, if an issue arose after the inspection, the burden would be on the private inspector.

There are commonalities between the opt-out program and utilizing private building inspectors, Callahan said.

"In both cases, the property owner assumes the responsibility of a well-built home," Callahan said.