Hastings is a growing community with many new residential and commercial developments either being constructed or planned for construction. Likewise, much of the City’s infrastructure is aging and in need of replacement. While City staff primarily focuses on reconstruction and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, to keep up with the additional demands of new development projects, the City supplements its work force by utilizing consultant staff for plan review and construction inspection services. Costs for all of the consultant’s services are billed accordingly through the use of escrowed funds deposited by each developer at the onset of their project.
Since any new public roads or utilities eventually become the responsibility of the City, it is critical that these facilities are designed and constructed to appropriate standards. The consultants enforce City standards and specifications in both plan review and construction phases of developer owned projects and report to the City’s Building, Engineering, Planning, & Public Works staff regularly.
Before any recommendation is given to the City Council to approve a developer project plans for construction, compliance with the applicable state and local regulations and guidelines is confirmed. During construction, the consultant technicians inspect construction activity for compliance with the City’s construction specifications.
Lot Survey & Grading Verification
To ensure that stormwater drains as intended within newly constructed developments and at properties with newly constructed homes and commercial buildings, a verification survey is performed shortly before a new building is approved for occupancy. The contractor of the new structure must schedule a final grading verification inspection with the City’s consultant surveyor through City’s Building Department. During the verification survey, the consultant visits the construction site and takes measurements of the ground elevation around the property, and compares the in field condition to the elevations that were proposed on the construction plan. When the field measurements are within tolerances, the final grading verification survey is considered approved. If the measurements are found to be out of tolerances, the surveyor notifies the contractor and the City Building Department that corrections are needed, followed by a re-inspection.
