Lake Villa pursuing agreement with Lake County for inspection services
A pair of agreements with Lake County about property inspections is expected to improve efficiency for Lake Villa and convenience for residents.
The first deal calls for the county to provide property maintenance inspections and zoning reviews for residential and nonresidential properties. That would include electrical, plumbing, mechanical and structural plans.
The second will allow residents or developers to apply for and schedule and track the progress of inspections online.
County officials approved the measures Tuesday and the village board will consider them this month.
Village administrator Karl Warwick said the village is pursuing the agreements to enhance service to residents and make the village government more efficient. Lake Villa has been using one contractor and will now gain access to a variety of resources, he said.
Currently, the process involves a paper permit application that is filed and retrieved as needed. The new system will streamline the process and save time, Warwick said.
The county has contracts for inspections/plan reviews with several communities near Lake Villa and has a lot of work in the unincorporated area nearby, according to Eric Waggoner, director of the county's planning, building and development department. The department provides its highest volume of inspections in the northwest portion of the county, where Lake Villa is.
"Adding contract work in this high-volume area is ideal from an efficiency standpoint because it further concentrates our inspection routes and minimizes driving time between inspections," he said.
The cost to the village will be $67 per hour.
A second agreement gives the village licensing and access to the computer-based land management system, known as Tyler Energov, to track and manage building permits and inspections and code enforcement.
Lake County has used Tyler Energov for more than two years to coordinate its permit system across five departments. When it implemented the system, the county negotiated shared services terms to allow it to be used by other municipalities.
The agreement with Lake Villa is "truly unique," Waggoner said, because the village is the first to simultaneously contract for licenses to the Tyler Energov permitting software. That will allow the village and county to coordinate operations and work together in one system.
Last winter, the inspection/review program was presented at regional roundtables, Waggoner said. It has become standard practice to coordinate more closely with communities when it is mutually beneficial, he said.