It is the Fire Marshal’s office responsibility to protect the interest of our citizens and to ensure the safety of the structures that they live and work in. For most citizens, their home is the largest investment they will ever make. For our small business owners, their business is what supports them and their families. Large commercial projects will offer services to many different people throughout the State.

Why is Plan Review necessary?

The plan review phase of the process provides a second pair of ‘eyes’ to review the final construction documents and to insure compliance with locally adopted codes, and ordinances.  It is far less complicated and costly to make revisions on paper for code compliance prior to construction, than after the project is under construction.

Plan Review also makes the inspection process more efficient. When the inspector visits the job site, they will look for compliance with the plans as approved. The Plan review process can take many hours to verifying code compliance, while the inspector may only have a few minutes in the field. Plan reviewers have libraries of information and other staff available to discuss concerns. Often, decisions made prior to approving a plan are based on consensus supported by research. The Construction process is streamlined when field inspectors do not have to make quick field interpretations or delay field approval for additional research.

Residential Projects: The most often missed items found during plan review are the connection details that provide information about how the structure needs to be put together in order to resist the wind forces we sometimes experience here in the valley.

Commercial Projects: These projects often have architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and fire protection components that have not been coordinated. In many cases, the disciplines are from different offices or even different States, so during the design phase one discipline change will likely affect another discipline.