Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Oro Valley Council Considers Revising Town Codes

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There are a number of important items on tonight's Oro Valley Town Council a meeting agenda.  The agenda includes includes a major change to the building code; presentation of the Oro Valley five-year fiscal forecast; adoption of the proposed $93.9 million budget for 2013-2014; approval of the public participation plan for the town's general plan update; and discussion of what to do with the $197,000 that remains in the Oro Valley Library fund. These funds are no longer needed for the library since  Pima County now runs a library.

Any one of these items is worthy of  an entire Council meeting.   
  • Has the Council really completed discussion on the $94 million budget?  There and been two public meetings.  Are we to assume that the Council had done sufficient diligence to warrant approval? 
  • Then there is the hundred pages worth of code changes, purported "updates" to the code.   Some of these have far reaching impacts on you.
"In it, 'big brother' Oro Valley sets minimum requirements for anything you can think of.  You need to put  carbon monoxide detectors in your home.  Changes will require arc fault detection in all rooms,  require that electrical outlets be put in large foyers,  increase the insulation factors in ceilings and walls, increase the insulation factor in duct work,  require automatic timers for pool heaters, require covers for heated pools, and require high-efficiency lamps for permanently installed fixtures.   

The changes require a permit for pool repairs unless the repairs do not involve electrical, mechanical and plumbing; the cost is less than $1K in a 12 month time period.  

Isn't all this worthy of detailed inspection and discussion? 
  • And what of the $197,000?    It seems like some on council want to spend the money before the end of this fiscal year. Otherwise it will be carried into next year.   Why not simply transfer into the contingency fund?
  • Has sufficient time been spent discussing the public participation plan?   The last time we heard about it he was just being introduced two weeks ago.
We don't know how long tonight's council meeting will run. We are more concerned with the diligence with which each item is going to be considered by Council. It it possible for Council to give thoughtful consideration of so many important items in one meeting?
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