ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: May 29, 1996
Dept. File: PL0005.RPT
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: City Building Inspector
SUBJECT: Building Envelope Specialist
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT Council approve the establishment of a new regular
full-time position of building envelope specialist, subject
to position evaluation by Human Resource Service.
B. THAT Council abolish position #04358 Energy Utilization
Inspector.
C. THAT Council instruct the Directors of Finance and Legal
Services to bring back the appropriate amendments to the fee
schedule in the Building By-law.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
Tbe General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of
A, B and C.
COUNCIL POLICY
On February 3, 1994, Council resolved:
THAT, during the term of the 1994-1996 Budget Management
Program, any proposed increases in program and/or service
levels be offset by corresponding spending reductions
elsewhere in the City's operating budget or by increases in
non-taxation revenues, subject to Council discretion.
Council also expressed concern for prioritizing the Control of leaks
in building envelopes while considering a General Manager's report on
"Leaky Buildings", in Committee, December 7th, 1995.
PURPOSE
This report recommends the approval of a new Building Envelope
Specialist position and the elimination of one Energy Utilization
Inspector position to:
1. provide more detailed review of Building Envelope Design
standards and provide assistance to designers and
contractors in interpreting the new code requirements; and
2. to move to an audit and informational service for Energy
Utilization. This program has been in place for 5 years and
may justifiably move to a less comprehensive technical
review process with emphasis on the educational and
informational aspects of the program. Reviews will continue
on an audit basis to ascertain that the program continues to
function as designed.
BACKGROUND
On July 12, 1990, a previous Council approved the implementa-tion of
the Energy Utilization By-law and also the addition of 2 specialized
staff positions to review submissions for a Building Permit.
DISCUSSION
The work of implementing an Energy Utilization (EU) review and
designing the submission forms and checklists created a major workload
on the 2 EU positions since inception of the Energy Utilization
By-law. In fact we have often had a long permit review backlog in
this area for various reasons. Recently, one of the 2 positions has
become vacant and has not yet been filled, resulting in more
processing delays.
The creation of this new position is intended to provide an enhanced
involvement with weather-protection review in conjunction with the
Energy Utilization review. The intention is to have the special
knowledge requirements of energy utilization and weather-protection
reviewed by the specialists while the energy issues will be reviewed
on an audit basis to reduce permit review time and remove the backlog
for this function.
The building envelope is a major energy conserving component of the
building. However, another equally important function for the
building envelope is to resist the destructive effects of
environmental conditions, arising in both the building interior and
exterior environments. When these separate functions of the building
envelope are designed by two different individuals, they cannot
develop a comprehensive understanding of the building sciences
involved, and may compromise the successful design of one function at
the expense of the other.
Our aim at this time is to try something new and blend the two
different building sciences into one review process. In time, all
related staff will be trained to understand potential shortcomings of
building envelopes through this new staff position.
Since most, if not all, submissions are presented by multiple
professional designers, we are looking for a knowledgeable and
experienced architect, engineer or professional building scientist
thoroughly trained in Energy-efficient design issues specifically
affecting building envelopes capable of carrying out these reviews and
to be more involved with the improvement of building envelope design
details.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The major cost of creating this new position would be offset by the
elimination of an E.U. Inspector position (pay grade 25), the balance
being funded by the current "Energy Utilization" fees portion of the
Building Permit fees.
The current E.U. Inspector position that we plan to eliminate is
funded at $45,800 (pg.25) & $7,800.00 (fringe benefits) for a 1996
cost of $53,600.00. The proposed Building Envelope Specialist
position will be approximately $51,800.00 + $8,800.00 fringe benefits
for a 1996 cost of $60,600.00.
The revenue collected from Energy Utilization Permit fees was
originally designed to cover the costs of the 2 current E.U. Inspector
positions $107.200 (1996 rates). The extra costs would be
approximately $7,000.00 (including fringe benefits) for a new total of
$114,200 annually. By increasing "Energy Utilization" fees for just
the commercial residential buildings by 20%, we would be targeting the
building types which have been causing the most concern with building
envelope leaks, and be able to recover all extra costs created by this
new position.
CONCLUSION
The creation of the Building Envelope Specialist position will allow
the Department to continue with its Energy reviews on an audit basis
while at the same time, we can implement weather protection reviews
performed by an experienced Professional designer specializing in
building envelope technology.
A copy of this report has been provided to CUPE Local 15.
* * * * *