CAPRI Engineering Announces Concerns for Private Providers.

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Recently, CAPRI Engineering, a full-service engineering firm with ten offices all over the State of Florida, filed a complaint against the City of Ft. Myers for unlawful obstruction of the use of Private Providers under the terms noted in Florida Statute 553.791. In its complaint, CAPRI states that in order for the project to move forward a developer was forced by City Building Department Officials to terminate its contract with CAPRI Engineering or suffer further delays in getting their permits issued. CAPRI filed the complaint with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Tallahassee and five other State regulatory offices. A notice of claim directed to the Fort Myers Mayor and City Attorney in Lee County shows intent to move forward with a lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that The Fort Myers Building Department did not demonstrate support for and coordination with the Private Provider program that is available to any fee owner of a building that wants to elect to use this alternative, thereby obstructing the filing of the application and interfering with the progress of a proposed development as well as the relationship between a fee owner and the intended Private Provider, CAPRI Engineering.

In 2002, the Alternative Plans Review and Inspections Statute, now called the Private Provider Law, was enacted by the Florida legislature in an effort to promote economic and efficient plan review and inspection of construction projects for Building Code compliance. Large communities with overwhelmed building departments benefit from a relief valve allowing property owners to elect to use a private sector professional to perform plan review and inspections. In small communities, which do not have the capacity or budget to attend larger projects, building departments are given an outside alternative that would allow them to handle the needs of their consumers without hiring staff that the community could not afford. Currently, the resources of many municipal building departments around the state are stretched to the breaking point by unprecedented growth or are overwhelmed with hurricane related damage.

Under the Private Provider system, the city building department still collects a full permit fee when private providers are used even though the city's responsibility and workload is delegated to the private sector.

Court cases involving Homosassa Elementary School development supervised by the St. Petersburg Building Department and the Nature's Watch Townhouse Development show support for the Private Provider system and encourage the use of all available resources for building developments in the interest of public safety. The Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida has published a report by Bob Stroh supporting the same.

CAPRI Engineering management feels that there are still misunderstandings surrounding the law that can be worked out with cooperation between all parties. "The Private Provider Law is a program designed to alleviate stress on municipalities while encouraging responsible growth and development," says Gary H. Elzweig, P.E., President of CAPRI Engineering. For more information on Private Provider Laws and Statutes, contact Gary H. Elzweig at 954-424-2520.