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Permit requests get remodeling

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: July 5, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - The roofing crews appeared at Alexander Donaldson's house early one recent Monday morning.

As the sun beat down on them, the trio of workers stripped leaky shingles from Donaldson's Peninsular Drive home, replaced sheets of rotting plywood and laid down a whole new roof on the 2,200-square-foot home.

For Donaldson, the work was just the latest in a series of remodeling projects on the house built for his family at the north end of Lake Padgett in 1972.

"My wife and I don't need this much house," Donaldson said. "But we're on this beautiful lake, and our kids were raised here."

Remodeling has always been a large part of the building permits issued by Pasco County. During the mid-decade housing boom, remodeling was overshadowed by new-home construction as both a measure of economic health and as a source of income for county coffers.

Now that new-home construction has ground to a near halt, however, remodeling has become a key source of employment for blue-collar workers. It has also become a key source of income for the county's permit-funded development review office.

The state and federal governments are helping bolster remodeling-related construction in the county.

The state's My Safe Florida Home program, which subsidized steps to hurricane-proof older homes, has helped pay for 429 projects in Pasco during the past year for a total of $1.7 million, according to the state Department of Financial Services.

The program has spent $1.7 million in Pasco County. By comparison, Pinellas County has gotten $7.1 million for more than 2,100 projects. Hillsborough County has received nearly $1.3 million for 400 projects, according to state officials.

In all, My Safe Florida Home has reimbursed more than 31,000 projects statewide. The program was cut from the state budget that went into effect July 1.

A bump in the federal energy efficiency tax credit persuaded Roy Younger of Wesley Chapel to swap out the 10-year-old single-pane windows on his Meadow Pointe home for double-pane models. He'll file for the $1,500 tax credit, up from $200 last year, on his 2009 income taxes.

"We got to thinking maybe it's high time we changed our windows," Younger said.

He expects the new windows, which are also impact-resistant, to cut his cooling costs and protect his house from hurricane debris.

Younger said he considered applying for My Safe Florida Home grants as well but was leery of the bureaucracy involved.

"Maybe it would have saved us some money," he said. "But it wasn't worth the hassle."

Subsidized remodeling projects are a third of more than 1,300 projects Pasco officials have approved this year to replace roofs, windows and garage doors. The bulk of the work has been done in west Pasco, where much of the housing stock is both outdated and sitting in the path of potential tropical storms.

The increase in remodeling projects has been a boon for county officials, who have slashed code enforcement and building inspection jobs in recent years as fees that support those jobs have fallen.

Cindy Jolly, Pasco County development director, said building officials have taken steps to cut costs, most notably by creating an all-electronic system for conducting and reporting building inspections. That process has reduced paperwork, confusion and downtime, Jolly said.

The department's budget, however, remains delicate.

"We watch it daily," Jolly said. "We're sustaining our own for now."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 731-8168.

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