Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Livingston County Building Department has entered into an intergovernmental agreement to provide services to the Village of Webberville in Ingham County.

Livingston County also provides building department services to the City of Williamston - marking the second intergovernmental agreement secured in Ingham County.

Building Official / Department Director Jim Rowell said it builds on the county's success in partnering with neighboring communities, and “our door is always open to discuss sharing services with other local communities”.

The contract with Webberville became effective Monday, June 22nd. The agreement is said to streamline operations to lower fees for permit holders and reduces overall building department costs for the Village of Webberville.

Rowell told WHMI that Webberville had been using a consulting firm that only provided services one day a week. Since they already have an agreement with the City of Williamston and are driving through there regularly, he said it just made sense to partner with Webberville. The agreement with Williamston has been in place for the past five years.

The Building Department works with straight permit revenue and doesn’t make a profit. Per state law, a municipal building department cannot make a profit from permit and inspection fees and must be cost-neutral.

Rowell said the department has a full-time staff of 21, and is open 5 days and 40 hours a week.

Activity was said to have been down a bit over the last couple of years. Rowell said since they have some extra bandwidth; they’re looking to help out other communities.

Rowell noted though that being cost-neutral, the more work they get, the more they have the economy of scale, the lower fees go and the less it costs customers for a permit. He added they work to make the process as painless as possible and customer service intensive for homeowners, contractors and others utilizing the department, and they are open to sharing services.

Rowell said things are on the upswing now but over the last two or three years in general their overall activity on an annual basis has been down a little bit. However, he said there is a lot of infrastructure going in right now and subdivisions in the works so they anticipate it will be a good year and are looking forward to positive growth.

Photo: Livingston County