03.22.09
To Wiz or Not To Wiz, That is the Question
The City this week, hit us over the head with the building code and added thousands of dollars to the cost of building our new stores downtown. What in heavens name are they thinking?
Throughly PO’ed
Dear PO’ed,
I’ve followed the argument in the paper. Can I assume you are talking about the asbestos and multiple bathroom thing? If you are, I have a couple of thoughts. First the criteria for bathrooms, the code says if you are in a small store, like the Chamber one bathroom is OK. If you are in a little larger area the code says you have to have two bathrooms. What does the code say about the huge stores, for example Lowes and Walmart. I believe the code says that two are OK. Same as the small storefront downtown, so logically I can assume the number of bathrooms is not dependent on the square footage as the city states but rather on an illogical decision made by some faceless bureaucrat and adopted by our city without thinking. If you argue the point you are referred to the board of variance for a ruling. Don’t hold your breath, they are not going to think about it and recognize the absurdity of the situation. Their argument invariably is that they are looking after your best interests, protecting you and the public. But enough, these are nothing more than illogical, arbitrary rules set up by an unthinking bureaucracy. Change the rule, you can do that. Change the way the rules are enforced, you can do that. Pretend you care about us, we can understand that.
On asbestos, I can understand the concern but again I do not like the reasoning. If you bought an existing operating store and did not change anything you would probably not have to fix anything. But if you renovate, Katy bar the door. Here come the rule guys. In either case the risk to yourself and the public is the same, but in the first case nothing has to be done. Go figure I cannot.
One more comment, about the uneven enforcing of the codes. It appears that if you are bringing something to the city that they want, you will have far less trouble than a business that they do not feel is appropiate. Just an opinion, but they seem to have an unspoken agenda and never honestly put all of their cards on the table.
The only answer is to throw the bums out and hope the next group gets the message.
