BAM NEWS
POLITICS: THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION COMES TO TOWN! The Republicans are coming to town and in a big way! BAM has been very involved in assisting the National Association of Home Builders to plan events, provide materials for suites for the Republican Governors Association and help to provide visibility for homebuilders and the housing industry.
We are organizing an all member event for BUILD PAC on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 in Minneapolis. If you are BUILD PAC contributor it is free, otherwise it will cost $100 per person. We hope you can come, meet the NAHB Senior Officers and celebrate the industry. We will have an invitation spot on the BAM website you can log onto in next week’s edition of THIS WEEK.
POLITICS: BAM Endorses EL TINKLENBERG for the 6th Congressional District. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Elwyn 'El' Tinklenberg were invited to the Central MN Builders Association offices last week to discuss the housing industry. It was great to have both candidates respond to our candidate information questionnaire. You can see Bachman’s response at http://www.bamn.org/documents/Bachmann Questionnaire.pdf and Tinklenberg’s response at: http://www.bamn.org/documents/Tinklenberg quest ionnaire.pdf At the end of the day, the committee members were not pleased with Congresswoman Bachmann answers for voting NO on the 2008 Housing Stimulus package. As a result, El Tinklenberg received BAM’s official endorsement. Joe Weis, BAM's BUILD PAC Representative, will be requesting funding for Mr. Tinklenberg's campaign. Thank you to CMBA for hosting interviews for the 6th Congressional District.
REGULATION: HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH FEE INCREASES? In another attempt to increase the cost of housing, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has suggested a new set of draft fees for storm water permits. Apparently, they think residential construction has lots of elasticity in pricing. It looks like they also based the need for the fees on permit activity when it was at its peak.
In addition, they suggested new fees but none of their suggested fees appeared to have any nexus with the services you currently receive such as enforcement of the NPDES General Permit and monitoring of the SWPP. In response to their draft proposal, BAM sent a letter to the MPCA saying, “where is the beef?” Ok, it didn’t say exactly that but it did suggest they are more realistic about the amount of construction activity they will be seeing and to provide a specific purpose for the increase and added fees. You can see our letter at: http://www.bamn.org/documents/Stormwater Docs Weekly Reader 81508.pdf
REGULATION/LEGAL: Talk About Fees, Cross Lake Takes A Run At A New License and Fee. The City of Cross Lake decided to create a new permit and fee structure for restoration and/or excavation as it relates to development. Members of the Mid MN Builders Association (MMBA) took them to task and are asking the City to rescind what they believe to be an “illegal license and unsubstantiated fee". This is a case the BAM Legal Action Committee is closely watching.
REGULATORY: The New Residential Energy Code Will Be Required When? The Department of Labor and Industry has put the proposed, long awaited Residential Energy Code on line. That’s the good news. Download it by clicking here: Proposed Residential Energy Code. It makes great beach reading for our Codes and Research Director Karen Linner. Okay that was a lie. Anyway, we are hoping with fingers and toes crossed that we don’t have to go through an Administrative Law Judge hearing on this code.
But DOLI in an attempt to help us, decided to give the construction industry only five days from the time the Governor signs the code to when it is implemented. This is exactly what we wanted to avoid so the industry could learn about the new code and adjust your bids and construction practices appropriately. Don’t worry; we are working like madwomen to fix the short time frame.
Last year, in a little known piece of legislation, BAM helped ensure a 6-month period between an officially published code and when it is actually implemented. BUT, if there is a health or safety purpose, the department can require it sooner. The decided the energy code invokes the health and safety exception. We disagree.
BAM’s legal counsel has advised us to request what’s known as a renotice of the energy code with the 180-day waiting period intact. This will give BAM and others time to understand the new code before it is used by contractors and inspectors. BAM staff is currently making a list of the changes in the code that will affect how you build and remodel. Stay tuned for more.