Wheat Ridge City Council has moved a step closer to altering the powers and membership of the Building Code Advisory Board.
During the Feb. 14 council meeting, an ordinance was passed that would allow the board more power to overrule the choices of building officials and would give more rights to applicants who wish to make appeals to the board.
“This is an issue that has been worked on for some time,” Councilman Davis Reinhart said. “We’re hoping what we have here is the final draft of it.”
Councilwoman Wanda Sang amended the ordinance, which allowed for an eight-member board and three-person quorum, to a five-member board. The board would be made up of one person from each district and one person at large.
“We’ve never been able to completely fill the board,” Sang reasoned. “I would support it with a higher quorum of five, but I have concerns with an the 8-3 setup. I think it sends the wrong message to citizens who don’t understand how these boards work, since most boards have quorums of five.”
Councilwoman Joyce Jay agreed with Sang, stating that she thought such a wide gap between members, and the quorum would encourage some to not fully commit to the work.
“It’d be best for the citizens if we had an eight-person board, so we could draw from a large pool of people who have the technical experience,” said Councilwoman Tracy Langworthy. “But since we don’t get that many applicants, we can change this and then if the applicants pool increases, we can review this.”
Reinhart argued that the ordinance was better as drafted because a larger membership and shorter quorum would give applicants a quicker method to get hearings for their appeals.
“I think the problem is that we haven’t really publicized the board and it’s importance,” Reinhart said.
The amendment passed 5-3 with Karen Adams, Karen Berry and Reinhart voting no, and the ordinance as amended passed unanimously, going to a final reading on Monday, Feb. 28.