Lawmakers introduce bill aimed at preventing DSPS plan review backlog

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State lawmakers formally introduced a bill on Wednesday to change Wisconsin’s commercial plan review process in the hopes of preventing a backlog of plan reviews from resurfacing.

During the 2019 building season, contractors often found themselves waiting months for the Department of Safety and Professional Services to sign off on commercial building plans. Although state officials later made internal changes that they say helped break up the logjam, many lawmakers and industry groups think more still needs to be done.

Senate Bill 167 again puts forward various proposed changes that lawmakers had called for during the state’s previous legislative session. The legislation, from Sen. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, would exempt certain single-story buildings with less than 200,000 cubic feet of space from plan reviews, as well as buildings with fewer than 25 plumbing fixtures, up from the current standard of 15. The exemption, however, wouldn’t apply to churches, apartments, factories or a host of other buildings.

Contractors, meanwhile, would have to pay plan-review fees up front, half of which would be non-refundable. More than a dozen Senate and Assembly Republicans have agreed to support the bill. No Democrat has registered in favor of it, though.

The bill’s proponents say the proposed changes would cause the DSPS to review fewer projects, making it less likely that a backlog of review requests would reemerge once construction recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DSPS, meanwhile, recently argued the state’s Commercial Building Code Council, rather than the Legislature, is the body best equipped to prevent future backlogs.

The DSPS has separately carried out various internal changes on its own. They have ranged from randomly assigning reviewers to certain projects and requiring that applications be submitted online. A number of those changes took effect permanently in mid-January.

The DSPS said last month it was taking three weeks on average to review commercial building plans and plumbing plans and four weeks on average for plans for fire sprinklers. The latest proposal has support from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association, the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin and the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin. Follow @natebeck9