The City of Dallas’s Building Inspection Department will host a Customer Open House on Tuesday, March 13 from 9-11a.m. in the Oak Cliff Municipal Center Cafeteria located at 320 E. Jefferson Blvd. Managers from all departments will be on hand to speak with Dallas builders and answer questions.
This event is open to all builders and contractors active in the City of Dallas. Please RSVP to Mindy Owen, mindy.owen@dallascityhall.com or 214-948-4347.
The City of Dallas budget that passed Wednesday included an important amendment that relieves a significant encumbrance on the Building Inspection Enterprise Fund. Enterprise Fund revenues come from fees paid by builders and developers. Ideally those fees are returned to them by the city in the form of a service whether it be a plan review, inspection, etc.
In Dallas, the HBA had long been concerned about items such as council authorized hearings for zoning cases that were being paid for by the Enterprise Fund even though they had little connection to services provided to builders and developers. Thanks to industry advocacy efforts, the action taken by council yesterday moves authorized hearings from the Enterprise Fund back into the city’s General Fund. As such, valuable resources will be freed up to better service builders and developers.
On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council voted unanimously to modify the city’s green building ordinance. The move will extend Phase 1 of the ordinance, which was limited to energy and water efficiency, for another year until October 1, 2012. This delay will allow time for the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) to be finalized and for updates to be made to the HBA’s Green Built Texas program.
Realizing that recent upgrades to the energy code mandated by the State of Texas go beyond the city’s original requirements, Dallas decided to set the 2009 energy code as its energy efficiency baseline. The city will continue to require homes to be 20 percent more water efficient than the base plumbing code. This can be demonstrated by following the water efficiency provisions of Green Built Texas or LEED for Homes. [Read more...]
Last week, HBA staff provided the Dallas Division with an illustration of how changes to codes and the green building ordinance in the City of Dallas will affect members in the near future. A copy of Phil Crone’s presentation can be found below.
The Dallas Division meets on the first Thursday of the month at 11:30 a.m. To register for future Dallas Division meetings visit the calendar at www.dallasbuilders.com.
Starting next month, the City of Dallas will allow qualified third parties to conduct plan reviews and inspections to ensure compliance with the city’s green building ordinance. Companies that are currently Green Built Texas verifiers, HERS raters, and/or have IECC certification can register with the city as a provider upon completing a required orientation program.
Information on the orientation program and the new third party review process (starting on September 1) is below. For more information on proposed changes to the green building ordinance, click here.
GREEN BUILDING PROGRAM NOTICE (sent by the City of Dallas) [Read more...]
HBA members and staff continue to meet with Dallas City Council members in July and August. The association remains concerned with the city’s budget proceedings as they pertain to the Building Inspections Enterprise Fund. In order for the city to maintain an efficient and effective Building Inspections Department, the fund must not be encumbered by expenses such as council authorized hearings and conservation district evaluations, which are currently being paid for by builder and developer fees. [Read more...]
With a new Mayor and new faces on the City Council, it is not surprising if Dallas takes a new direction on many fronts. Green building will be one of them.
Four years ago, newly-elected Mayor Tom Leppert made it clear to our Dallas Division that his goal was to make Dallas “the greenest city in America” and that “green building was going to be a big part of the city’s sustainable portfolio.” [Read more...]
Dallas, TX, June 7, 2011 – The Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas (HBA), a 1,200-member organization representing residential home builders, announced its endorsement of Mike Rawlings for City of Dallas Mayor. Prior to making this decision, the HBA conducted in-person candidate interviews.
“Each candidate in the mayoral race brings a unique skill set and experiences that they can draw on to serve them while in office,” said Keller Webster, chairman of the HBA’s Government Relations Committee. “Our industry supports Mike Rawlings because his business background will bring an entrepreneurial culture to City Hall. That, combined with his proven track record on issues such as economic development and homelessness, will help residential home builders facilitate the continued growth of our city.” [Read more...]
At a time when overly restrictive underwriting requirements are giving qualified home buyers a hard time in obtaining mortgages, the federal government needs to ensure that a reliable and adequate flow of housing credit is available through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), NAHB First Vice Chairman Barry Rutenberg told a congressional panel on May 25. [Read more...]
With some members of Congress actively pushing to abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and end the federal backstop for housing, NAHB on May 26 told Congress that maintaining an appropriate level of government support is absolutely essential for preserving the stability of the nation’s housing finance system. [Read more...]
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