Mayor Steve Bach said a developer who built townhouses too tall has an ethical — and, he believes, legal — obligation to move them or modify them.
“Our Planning Department is conferring with our City Attorney’s Office,” the mayor said during his monthly press briefing Tuesday.
“I know that they’ll be a meeting very soon between our city and Regional Building Department,” he said.
“We hope the parent company in Canada will step up and meet the obligations of Todays Homes to move those townhomes.”
Does the city of Colorado Springs bear some responsibility in this mess?
Did city planners drop the ball?
Here’s what the mayor said:
To whom does The Regional Building Department report? To whom are they accountable? Does their issuance of building permits and approval of various stages of construction override the City’s Planning Department’s criteria?
Recently I asked the Regional Building department why they not only allowed but permitted a large rainwater collection tank in my neighbor’s yard. It’s all documented on their website. The answer? “We just make sure it’s not hooked up to anything, we don’t actually enforce the laws in Colorado.”
Ok, so they say something that’s BLATANTLY illegal is not only ok, but officially OK per the city and county, but look the other way on a violation of state law? What would happen if teachers looked the other way when they saw signs of child abuse?
Fire every single one of them, and revoke their PERA immediately.
The Pikes Peak Regional Building Dept has the responsibility to oversee the construction of any type in El Paso, from homeowners like myself who finished my basement, got the permits, when certain phases of the construction was done, I would call them for their inspectors to come out and have a look-see. If something was not correct they would tell me and I would make the corrections or deletions, sometimes I had to get variances for changes that could not be done without exuborant cost. So why did they not catch this in the building of the “Tall-Homes”? My guess is the builder did not call PPRBD or possibly the builders wallet was open to the inspector. But as others see the story, there was some very BLATANT mistakes. I personnally would let the homes be as they are, fined the builder some very hard fines and they can no longer build in El Paso County and also question the PPRBD on their sloppy inspection of this builders homes.