Galesville to consider future of building permit requirements

Galesville could soon change its building permit requirements, according to discussions at last Thursday’s city council meeting.

No action was taken on the item Thursday, but the topic will be revisited in coming weeks. The council will also examine creating a committee to more easily review ordinances such as this one in the future.

Building permits are currently required only when construction, additions or repair projects within city limits cost more than $10,000, building inspector Joe Nordie told the council. The problem is that people often break their projects up into separate steps so they don’t have to get a permit, but they still end up spending the money in separate stages, Nordie said.

“We get a lot of ‘Well, I’m only going to do this part, and it’s going to cost me $5,000 to do this. Well, now I’m going to do this part.’ They’ll do a project in stages and break it down into stages so that we’re missing out on the information that projects are being done within the community,” Nordie said.

Nordie suggested that any type of new construction requires a permit, and the cost of the permit could be based on the price of the construction. He said the reason for the permits is to know when work is being done in the community for tax purposes.

“We need our community to look nice, we want people to pick things up. .. We don’t want to get in the way of our community, individuals not wanting to fix stuff up. But we want to make sure that we know things are getting done, that they’re being done properly,” Nordie said.

Tracking commercial changes is a big concern in the current ordinance as well, he added.

Mayor Vince Howe said there are communities in Trempealeau County that don’t have any regulations unless a resident is building something new. Repairs and renovations aren’t tracked closely by these communities, he said, adding that he believes Strum is the only other area community that has a similar ordinance to Galesville.

Council member Tyler Truax shared concerns over phrasing in the ordinance, specifically when it implies that ‘any’ type of construction needs a permit. Truax said a person can go to a store and spend thousands of dollars on smaller repairs.

“I feel like it’s a ridiculous thing to say that they’d have to get a permit to make some fixes to their deck that cost $2,000,” Truax said. “That’s my personal opinion. It doesn’t take much now to spend a couple grand.”

Council member Tom Thatcher also said he wants phrasing to be more clear to differentiate minor work such as replacing an electrical outlet to major structural work.

Council member Kelly Kreger recommended changing the ordinance to focus on the timeline for projects to say a person needs to renew their permit if their work isn’t done by a certain date, but Nordie explained that the permits are good for one year according to the current ordinance.

“I’m looking at a way we can track the projects that are being done and being done correctly,” Nordie said.

Other council members agreed that they should look at the phrasing of the current ordinance, so they decided to have attorney Dan Arndt review the ordinance and bring it back to a future meeting. They also discussed the possibility of forming a new committee that would focus on ordinance changes so that future changes could be made easier.