Golden Valley Reminds Residents About Building Permits
Like most inner-ring Minneapolis suburbs, most of the single-family homes in Golden Valley are several decades old at this point. New construction continues on a smattering of apartment and condominium buildings, including the large Sentinel project near Golden Valley Road and Highway 55. The project is rising from the ground, and building inspectors from nearby city hall are on top of making sure everything is up to state code.
“We have two inspectors there each day,” said City of Golden Valley Building Inspector Brian Stemwedel. “There’s a lot to look at.”
But Stemwedel and his colleagues also regularly inspect progress on any number of residential remodeling projects that are on-going in the city, and he says all of that starts when property owners apply for a building permit. Since COVID, most have done so online.
Most single-family homes in Golden Valley are several decades old.
“You give us some basic information like your address, your scope of work, what you’re going to be doing, and if plans are required, you would submit plans into our system,” said Stemwedel. “We would review the plans for code compliance to begin with, so when we’re done with that process, at least you will have a clean set of plans that you know is code compliant.”
Once plans are approved for projects like roofing, additions, accessory structures (anything bigger than 200 square feet), inspectors will come out during construction at key points to make sure everything is up to state code and in line with city zoning ordinances.
“We wouldn’t want your shed, for example, blowing into your neighbor’s yard,” said Stemwedel. “So there’s certain things like that you should be aware of.”
Stemwedel said some residents may not be aware of permitting rules, and some do try to skirt the rules and begin construction anyway. He said the city does its best to work with those doing the work to make sure they don’t have to rip out anything too substantial if it’s not up to code once the permitting goes through.
“We’re here to protect the safety of the public, we’re here to protect the integrity of our housing stock,” he said. “It’s good for the homeowners, it’s good for the community members, as a whole, because you can be sure that our built environment is going to be safe and functional.”
