Real Estate Show Medford Building Department 05_2023

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Real Estate Show with Medford Building Department

Alice Lema: [00:00:00] Well, hey, Southern Oregon, welcome back to the Real Estate Show. So glad you could join us again today. I'm Alice Lema. I'm a broker here in beautiful southern Oregon with John L Scott Real Estate and your host of the show. And today we get to welcome back Kimberly London of City of Medford Development Services.

Specialists in the building department. We love having these folks on the show every so often during the year. They bring us up to speed on what's going on, changes in codes, permits, and just having good practices with your construction. Before we bring Kimberly in and start firing off all the questions, let's check the local stats cuz we've got some changes.

Since last week, Klamath Falls, this is year over year prices. We've got an increase of 8% in the prices in Klamath County. Average residential home is now $327,103, but the number of solds year over year in Klamath County are [00:01:00] down 25%. The number of listings in Klamath County are down 17% and the foreclosures closed in the last week are zero. The number of short sales closed in Klamath County in the last week are zero, and we're now tracking the million dollar sales and Klamath County had zero million dollar sales closed last week.

Let's go to Josephine County. So Josephine County prices year over year are dead even. So we have a 0% change. That means that a average price for a residential home in Josephine County will now cost you $453,466. The number of solds year over year in Josephine County are also down 19%. The number of listings are down in Josephine County, 11%. We have zero closed. Foreclosures in Josephine County this week. Zero closed short sales [00:02:00] in Josephine County and zero closed million dollar sales in Josephine County this week.

Let's get to Jackson County. Now here's a tiny bit of good news, cuz last week was sad. So Jackson County this week, year over year, the. Prices are up 1% and we'll take it. The average price of a residential home in Jackson County will now cost you $502,020. The number of solds though, in Jackson County, year over year are still down 29%. Number of listings are still down 18%. We have zero close foreclosures in Jackson County this week. Zero close short sales in Jackson County this week, and zero closed million dollar sales in Jackson County. So folks we still have a shortage of listings.

I know it's tough out there, but you know what? We still have a few more buyers than sellers. So get your house on the market and stay tuned for [00:03:00] Kimberly London. Don't touch that dial.

Well, welcome back folks to the Real Estate Show. I'm Alice Lema, broker John L. Scott here in beautiful Southern Oregon, and today we're interviewing one of my favorite people in the whole world kimberly London from City of Medford. She's the development services specialist. Welcome back, Kimberly.

Kimberly London: Thank you so much. It's good to be here.

Alice Lema: Yeah, we just love having you on and here we are just kind of at the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter. The weather is changing and I believe it is a safety month.

Kimberly London: Yes. May is building safety month. It's also hundred and 10th anniversary of City of Medford building permits. Yeah. 110 years we've been issuing building permits in the city of Medford.

Alice Lema: Wow. Wow. So we have so much to talk about and we definitely wanna talk about the building safety month, but we also love hearing how the permit issuing is going compared to [00:04:00] what it was. Can you bring us up to speed on that?

Kimberly London: Sure. So year to date, we have had 57 single family dwelling permits issued, and we've had 15 ADU which is accessory dwelling units, second houses, little houses on properties. 11 of those used our S D C reduction program. There is a grant available to help pay the costs, the permitting costs for ADUs. And if you qualify, then you can get pretty much your fees cut in half.

An A D U. There's also, also readily available plans on the, this is on planning department's website, so not, it's not building department, it's under planning department. But if you're thinking about building an A D U, there's readily available plans that have already been pre-approved [00:05:00] on their website.

And if one of them works for you and you like it, And you're not going to modify it at all, you can get your plan check fee reduced in half also. So there's another saving, and it's a big saving because you don't have to draw the plans yourself or obtain someone to draw the plans for you.

Well, and also there's a huge amount of time involved.

Alice Lema: Even if you use one of those you know, apps to do the floor plans, it takes time.

Kimberly London: Yes it does. And then there, these are already correct, so it doesn't even have to go back for corrections. The only thing that you have to do is your site plan. So you wanna make sure that's as perfect as it can possibly be so that we can get this through the system and it's a smooth transaction.

Alice Lema: Wow. Do you have a feeling for how long permits are taking to get approved for ADUs. I, [00:06:00] we, it's just throwing that question out.

Kimberly London: No, that's fine. Residential permits as a whole are traditionally 15 days.

Alice Lema: 15 days. Oh, that's really fast. That's really fast.

Kimberly London: So three weeks. Submitted everything that we need to do the review. You should have your permit in 15 days. With that being said, if you do utilize the reduction, Grant program for the SDC fees, that does take longer because there's deeds involved, recording documents. There's a lot more work on this end for our planning department, Sheila, specifically. So I'm going to, I always stick with 30 days.

Traditionally it's less than that, but I mean, it's the cost of getting, you know, doing business and getting a reduced fee, that's still an excellent timeframe.

Alice Lema: It really is. I mean, I hear people talking in other municipalities, in other parts of the country, and they're [00:07:00] waiting three and four months. So again, very proud of, of you guys, city of Medford, and, and you just rock. It's, it's wonderful. So SDCs, not everybody knows what that means. Can you just backtrack a little bit and talk about what those are?

Kimberly London: Sure there's along with your building permit fees, there's impact fees, and that's for the streets, sewer, storm drain our, parks. There's also a school CET that isn't reduced, to go to schools on any new construction. So those are the systems development charges. Impact fees that are associated with any new construction, residential, or commercial. And I'll just put it out there, an A D U, if you came in and asked me how much the permits are gonna be, I always ask people to budget between 10 and $12,000, and that includes your building, [00:08:00] electrical, mechanical, plumbing, permits, and inspections.

It also includes if you have to pave your driveway, if you have to do sidewalks. If there needs to be a new sewer tap at the street, the only fee that's not included is your water meter. If it needs to be upgraded and or a, a separate water meter needs to be installed. That's also your inspections as well. So with the A D U program, the grant program, it does cut those fees pretty much in half.

Alice Lema: Wow, that's amazing.

Kimberly London: Yeah. 4,500 to 6,000 to build a second dwelling, ADU on your lot within the city limits of Medford.

Alice Lema: And it sounds like it's only adding a week or two.

Kimberly London: Yeah to the timeframe for the review cycle.

Alice Lema: Wow. That is awesome. So 57 new residential permits for single family dwellings. Does that feel like it's busy in that department [00:09:00] or does it feel slower?

Kimberly London: Well, it's, it's not busier. Traditionally we average doing 14 permits a day. That's, oh, people don't realize that they call a month later, and I don't really remember their project or their name because we do about 14 permits a day.

Way, it's quite a few. I mean, some of those are little, you know, permits, electrical panel upgrades, heating and air upgrades, if you have your air conditioner replaced, now that we're getting into the warm season, it really does need a permit. Most heating and air companies take care of that permit for you? Ask copy. Ask him for a copy of it so you could have it with your homeowner's records. If you ever need to file an insurance claim or need that for some reason, even reselling your home, if you have all that documentation together, it makes it easier and it's less stressful for you.

Alice Lema: Yeah, yeah. [00:10:00] When somebody's getting your permits for you, definitely a good idea to ask for copies. Yes. But I think, aren't there copies on your website? Okay. So how do they get those if they can't get their service provider to do it?

Kimberly London: No, no problem. And actually, if you're looking at purchasing a home, or you're looking at selling your home, or just have questions on permitting, you wanna know what your neighbor next door is doing, but you don't wanna ask 'em, you can go onto the City of Medford's website

Alice Lema: because they're public record.

Kimberly London: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So www. MedfordOregon.Gov and right on the very first screen. Online services, building permits, you just click building permits, and then on the second screen you click on building permits, online services. And it says to schedule inspections to pay permit fees, but it's also the same link to view permit history. Then once you get on it, it says select [00:11:00] permit, and you're like, I have no idea what the permit number is, but there's a dropdown. You can look by the AP n Assessor parcel number, and you can also look by the address. Most people search by address and you wanna keep it simple. You don't wanna say Queen Anne Street because what if we have it in there as Queen Anne Avenue?

And what if we have Queen Anne as one word, not two words. So just type in Queen and it, there is a Queens road in the city of Medford, so it, it'll give you everything and then just look for your address. It's gonna give you any of the permits from 1997 to current for that address. You can click on it and see what it is, if it's additional, you know, if there's additional information or if you want information on a property dating back to 1961 to current, that is also considered readily available history. That research and gift to you [00:12:00] for free. Now, I'm not talking about the Rogue Valley Mall or Medford Center or a large commercial structure because that's time consuming, hours of research, and that's something you're gonna need to pay for. But for a single family dwelling, we, we don't charge for that service.

Alice Lema: That's awesome. Your, yeah, your website is amazing. So folks, we're talking to Kimberly London, city of Medford, Development Services Specialists, one of our favorite, favorite guests. So going back to the permits 57 in three months that is a little light. Any anybody worried about that or is it just the normal winter, winter slow part?

Kimberly London: I mean, it's definitely a reduction from last year. And yeah, so like last month, March, we had 19 single family dwelling permits issued. Last year, March we had 41.

Alice Lema: Wow. That's a big difference.

So it, it's, it's, [00:13:00] it is, but there's still coming in.

Kimberly London: I mean, there's still projects, there's subdivisions opening up. They're, it, they're coming. There's still a lot in new construction. I mean, 19 new houses, you know, permits issued for housing last month. I don't consider that bad.

Alice Lema: Okay. Well that's good. That's good. And it does feel like it's picking up a little bit. And then 15 ADUs in the last permits issued per this year. Yeah. Yeah. Is that considered light or is that picking up some steam?

Kimberly London: It's the ADU program's picking up steam. They ran out once and they were able to get more grant funding to help with this program because it's an excellent way to have additional income and rentals.

Creating more rentals. Multifamily, oh my gosh, lots of multi-family. We've issued permits this year for 35, [00:14:00] multi-family buildings, which is creating a total of 346 units. Wow

Alice Lema: . Wow. And that's just in City Municipality. Wow.

Kimberly London: Yes. And that's not including the big North Gate, you know, apartment complex coming up. I mean that one's coming and it'll be more. Yeah. But that's anything. Four units are larger.

Alice Lema: Yeah, I'd be curious to find out on the ADUs if those are for family members or if they're gonna put 'em into the rental pool for additional housing.

Kimberly London: Either or qualifies what does not qualify as Airbnb.

Alice Lema: Right, right. Because yeah. Yeah. And Airbnb is considered under 30 days, is that correct? Short term rental?

Kimberly London: I'm, you know, I'm not exactly sure what plannings

I

Alice Lema: think that is, yeah, I think that's kind of the standard. Yes. Yeah, yeah. If you [00:15:00] do term rental, yeah. If you're doing less than 30 days, that's, that's what counts. So we've got just about a minute left and you happen to mention before we went on the air that you're doing a real estate class for the agents.

Kimberly London: Yes, it's a necessary new agent. Training May 16th. It's gonna be here at the city, at the Prescott room, at the police department, and you get your, your credit. It's through R V A R, Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. So you get your two hours of credit. So if you need any continuing education credit, I am actually have a slideshow. I'm gonna show you how to look up permits. Online how to look them up yourself. Just about the building department, non permitted work. I always have funky pictures of stuff that we, that people love. No, this is really something here.

Alice Lema: I'm so glad. Yeah. And the, and the agents who are experienced should go to this too. We gotta take a quick break, so hold that thought. Kimberly, we're talking to [00:16:00] Kimberly London. City of Medford Development Services specialists we've got more to chat about here, so do not touch that dial cuz we will be right back after this quick word from our sponsors. Don't go away.

Well, hey, Southern Oregon, welcome back to the Real Estate Show. We're talking to Kimberly London of the city of Medford. She's the development services specialist. And right before the break we were starting to talk about real estate agent training that Kimberly does. And this is so super important.

It happens to be for new agents, but we are thinking we should have some of the more experienced agents go as well. Because you were telling me during the break, sometimes you're seeing things online that you shouldn't, huh?

Kimberly London: Yeah, I've actually pulled whenever we have something that does not have permits, I've been pulling the listings and a lot of times it's on the listing, showing it as part of the listing, especially ADU two families [00:17:00] set up. Two houses on one lot when actually it's not legal. As two houses on one lot. We don't legally recognize the second kitchen. Or it was a code case a few years prior and they had to remove the kitchen and now all of a sudden a property's listed for sale with that kitchen back in there. So I saw someone had put two kitchens buyer, you know, buyer's agent do their own diligence.

And I saw, I thought, very smart way of wording it. You just, you know, you didn't put that it was legal. You didn't put that it was illegal. You put that, you need to do your own research to come to the conclusion on what is legal and not legal. A lot of older homes have two kitchens.

Alice Lema: They, they used to back in the day, yes.

Kimberly London: Yeah, it's Butler's pantry. It was normal, but walling that off and now all of a sudden having two units. It's not [00:18:00] legal. I don't have my fire separation between the structure.

Alice Lema: Yeah. I was just gonna ask what the, yeah, what the reasons were. And it's because of safety? Is that what you're saying?

Kimberly London: It's 100% safety from the building department aspect, we want you to be able to make extra money. We want a lot of people are using 'em, you know, especially with their interest rate so high right now. If there's a second dwelling on that lot, you can use that rental income as part of your purchasing power to qualify to buy homes.

So there's different ways, but if it's not legal and you're getting down to close of escrow, and the lender or the appraiser are asking me to confirm or is show them copies of certificates of occupancy for these secondary dwellings, and I can't produce it because it's not legal. Then we're kind of back to square one.

Yeah. And the new buyer is stuck with that [00:19:00] non permitted nonconforming, ADU and the fees associated with it. And that's, that's really not fair.

Alice Lema: And I don't think people realize the whole reason we want the City of Medford safety team involved is because we're talking about wiring, we're talking about sewer what else are we talking about? But it all has to do with somebody from your office going out and verifying that it's a safe place for somebody to habitate.

Kimberly London: Right it, that it meets minimum code and, and with the fire separation. That doesn't mean a lot to people. But a perfect example of fire separation is the fire that occurred at Popular Square quite a few years ago.

Where it burned down a large portion of it, and there were people still in there getting their yogurt, getting their hair done. They did not realize that the whole roof was on fire because our fire separation between those units [00:20:00] had been breached by drilling for wiring or plumbing, or I'm not going to put one specific group of contractors in there, but there was a breach in the fire separation in the attic area that caused that fire to spread without anyone actually occupying the units to be aware of that. That could be the same scenario on a house. If you have someone next door to you, even a duplex as fire separation, attached single family dwellings have fire separations between them.

What if they leave their barbecue going or their candles lit, or if there's just faulty wiring, who knows what, and their unit catches on fire. You want that extra time to be able to get out of the structure. You want that extra time for someone just walking down the street or driving down the street to be able to bang on your door for you to be able to get out.

What if [00:21:00] you're in the shower? What if you're asleep? You know, you just, you just don't you, or get your pets out. I mean, I'd go back in 10 times to get the animals out of the building.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Yeah, it, it can be really scary. And I, I think people don't realize that. And you know, as you're talking, your website is so easy to access. I'm wondering if tenants might wanna start checking out because I don't know that all the property managers are doing that. And then if something tragic happens that might have been avoided just by a quick click on your website, boy, we'd sure want people to be doing that.

Kimberly London: And seeing if it's legally two units. Absolutely. Or I mean, or I mean, if the codes go with the structure, there are a lot of apartments and housing units that met the code at the time they were constructed. They do not need current code at all, [00:22:00] and they might not have the appropriate fire separation between the units because it met the code at the time it was constructed.

Alice Lema: Oh. Oh no, that's another good point.

Kimberly London: That aspect also to look at. So if you're in a really old home or a really old apartment, at one point it did meet the code. With that being said, for tenants, Your landlord, absolutely or property manager, cannot do any electrical or plumbing on anything rented.

So if you have a rental and there's electrical issues that's beyond a light bulb or a light fixture or just a simple plumbing leak, I would hope to see a licensed electrician or plumbing contractor out there. The handyman or the maintenance company or the property owner cannot do any electrical or plumbing work on rentals. It must be someone licensed for those trades.

Alice Lema: [00:23:00] Oh, that is so good to know because I, I just don't think the word gets out about that.

Kimberly London: No. And people have, have been used to doing their own maintenance on their own properties. I understand that completely. But there we've all rented at some point in our life, a place that we know was not, I'm never, you plugged, plugged in and out outlet, it shocked you. Or you knew you had to unplug the microwave if you were gonna blow dry your hair.

That is not, that's not okay. That's not okay there. Yeah. Yeah. They can't do it. Maybe they are very capable of doing it, but legally they cannot.

Alice Lema: And the tenants can't do it either.

Kimberly London: No, absolutely not. No, they cannot. And I mean, they can do some stuff if the property owner is authorizing them to reroof the house or add or remove a wall or replace sheet rock or something like that. I have to have the owner's authorization in writing, [00:24:00] but the tenant and landlord can work together that way on some of the maintenance repairs as long as it's not electrical or plumbing.

Alice Lema: Wow, that's so good to know. And we'll definitely help get the word out on that as realtors. So when is the realtor training class that you're doing at Prescott?

Kimberly London: It is May 16th from two to four. It's here at City Hall in the Prescott room. You do need to sign up with the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors to get your continuing education. If you just pop in and you don't sign up because you think you, you know, you're in the area or you have time, you can give me your business card and I'll make sure that they get the card so that you can get credit for your two hours of continuing education. Absolutely. It's in the big room. We're gonna have space, so I'm o I'm okay with that and I'll make sure, as long as you give me your card, that I get that back to the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors so that you [00:25:00] can get your two hours of credit because they wanna make sure you were there.

Absolutely. And I, no cheating

Alice Lema: yeah. And it sounds like Kimberly only has 37 agents signed up, and the room is huge. So we'll definitely put the word out about that as well. May 16th from two to four, the real estate agent training class, necessary new agent training. That'll be, that'll be good. We would like to see some of the experienced agents there too, right?

Kimberly London: Yeah, it's, it's, even if you've already been, it's only two hours. I mean, and it's fun and you get continuing education. I do have new slides that I'm gonna show. We're gonna determine what's exempt from permits, you know, to, and what common remodels that occur that do need permits. That don't need permits.

Alice Lema: That'll be good. Yeah.

Kimberly London: What's considered a bedroom? Real estate code codes are not the same on that. [00:26:00]

Alice Lema: So people, if people don't know that, yeah, that's great. No, no. Yeah. Well, and things change, you know, and as an agent, if you've been in the business for a few years, it's really worth your while to attend these trainings just to be brought up to speed. We're right in the beginning of the. Spring selling season, and a lot of things are new and different. Which brings me to another question. You had mentioned something about the ev the electric vehicle Oh yeah. Infrastructure and I I hadn't heard about that. So what's going on?

Kimberly London: Yeah. Well, state of Oregon for multi-family complexes and all commercial new construction projects need to make 20% of their parking electric vehicle ready. You mentioned a nutshell, not have it up and running, but it needs to be ready. You need to show it on your plans where your 20% of your parking spaces are going to be [00:27:00] electric vehicle ready, like the underground conduit.

You don't have to follow through with the whole, you know, having it up and running at this point. But it does have to be ready. Any new construction, multi-family and commercial projects that have a parking lot.

Alice Lema: The, so you, you, I'm lemme just interrupt real quick. Yeah. So you're saying new construction, does that mean new construction of multi-family or new construction, residential?

Kimberly London: No, no single family residential at all at this point. Okay. Okay. It's only commercial buildings, and multi-family, which multi-family is considered a commercial building, so it does run under the commercial code anyway, but the state says 20% electric vehicle ready. The City of Medford multi-family which is five or more units for planning code must be [00:28:00] 40%. Multi-family ready. So if you're doing an apartment complex six detached. Six plexes, if they're going on the same city lot and there's five or more units, you are going to have 40% of them electric vehicle ready, it's called, okay, key parking infrastructure implementation. But I'm just gonna say electric vehicle ready, because that's, English to me.

Alice Lema: Right. And you know, it's interesting cuz there's still a lot of us that don't, didn't know what EV meant and people would say it real fast and mm-hmm. We weren't really sure what, what they were talking about, but it's the electric vehicle. So we're talking to Kimberly London, a City of Medford, development Services specialist. And the electrical vehicle readiness, you're saying they have to be 40% prepared, is that right?

Kimberly London: For multi-family, which is five or four units on the same tax slide and, and commercial.

Alice Lema: Well, that's, that's really [00:29:00] interesting. And yeah, good to know. That's why we gotta have you on several times a year, Kimberly.

Kimberly London: Well, thank you.

Alice Lema: So we're gonna have to take a, a quick break. We're gratefully brought to you by the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, also known as RVAR, Guy Giles Mutual Mortgage, and our local John L. Scott, Ashland and Medford. Thank you so much to all of you for making this possible every week. We're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and we'll be right back talking to Kimberly London, city of Medford Development Services Specialists. Don't go away.

Well, welcome back to the Real Estate Show folks. We're talking to Kimberly London today, city of Medford Development Services Specialists. Thanks for being on the show again, Kimberly. So in the last few minutes that we have left, let's talk about some of the events and things that the City of Medford is involved with in the near future.

Kimberly London: Perfect. We have a Southern Oregon home show coming up [00:30:00] next month, May 5th, sixth and seventh, I believe. Jackson County. Ashland and City of Medford, we are going to be sharing a booth and a avail available to answer your questions and talk to you. So if you're at the home show and you're thinking about purchasing something, there's a lot of vendors there.

Come on over and we can answer your questions about permitting. How much are the permits? What types are you gonna need plans? I mean, what you're gonna need for it. I am going to be there Saturday from 10 to two, so if you specifically wanna see me or City of Medford, 10 to two, Saturday, I'll be there Sunday, city of Medford, Nat will be there all day along with City of Ashland.

Jackson County will be there on Friday along with City of Ashland. I'm not sure if City of Medford's gonna be representing or not, but just stop by and say hi. Say, [00:31:00] Hey, I heard you on the radio show. We might have something extra to give a handout for people that say.

Alice Lema: Oh my gosh. That's great. I'm on the radio show. That is so awesome. Well, and you guys really know your stuff and you're very nice and you're very good at explaining things succinctly and quickly, so it's always a pleasure to talk to that team. So what time are you gonna be there again on Saturday, Kimberly?

Kimberly London: It either Saturday, 10 to two, Manning the booth. And also Ashland. Yes, Ashland will be there. And Jackson County. We're also also doing a drawing here for building safety month. This big jar of candy. You have to guess how many candies is in this jar to win the jar of candy in of May, and a bag of Radis, which I'm not going to disclose what's in here.

It's just kind of just a fun little giveaway to celebrate building safety month. [00:32:00] Everyone is willing can come in and fill out, guess how many candies? June 1st, I believe I will be announcing the winner. And you get all this candy. You can be hyper.

Alice Lema: What, what kind of candy is it?

Kimberly London: It's chocolates. Chocolate coins. Yeah. The whole thing of chocolate coins.

Alice Lema: That's awesome. Are you gonna take that to the home show and let people guess there?

Kimberly London: You know, I'm not going to. This year, because I'm not there the whole entire time. And I'm not manning it the whole time, so it'll just be at the front counter of community development, which is building planning, business licenses and public works engineering departments. We all share the big counter up there. The lobby's been remodeled. You do need to sign in when you come in no matter what.

Alice Lema: Yeah. And that's, that's good. Yeah, that's a good thing.

Kimberly London: We have to sign in and then we'll help you.

Alice Lema: Yeah. So stop by [00:33:00] the front counter at the City of Medford and guess how many chocolates and you can get some swag and get the chocolates. So yeah, we're definitely all gonna come in. And I'm assuming you can only enter once. Yep.

Kimberly London: You can only enter once. Yep. Yep. It'll be just something little and fun.

Alice Lema: Oh, that's awesome for building safety month. In the few minutes we have left, Kimberly we off and on talk about the 3D housing project that's happening in Medford. Do you have any news about that?

Kimberly London: We're discussing with them the master plan program because they're going to be doing a few different plans. And what the master plan is, is for any builders or developers, In a specific subdivision that are going to be repeatedly doing the same plan, they apply for master plans, and that's where we review the plans upfront, and [00:34:00] then when they're ready to submit for that specific house, they submit the pre-approved plans.

It gets your timeframe through the system quicker. The building department will get your permits reviewed within a three day turnaround time using the master plan program. So it's good. It's, it's all, it's not good for if you're using the same plan at numerous different developments, it has to be the same development project.

So for the 3D housing complex, they're going to be having, you know, I can't remember how many different plans they have, five to seven. There could be more different plans. Well, that's quite a few. It is because they're, you know, and they're going to be, you know, We're gonna be preparing the master plans for them so that we could get their plans out quicker.

I did say there was a 15 day turnaround time on residential plans, but if we can knock that down for you to [00:35:00] five days then that's, and building departments sticking with our three day turnaround time on our review. That's, but it's not just the building department that reviews plans.

Alice Lema: When will you know how many of these 3D houses are gonna be built?

Kimberly London: I'm sure there is knowledge somewhere. I don't know off the top of my head.

Alice Lema: But that'll be part of their plan that they present to you guys.

Kimberly London: That is in the works with planning and I believe it's already been figured out how many units. Okay. I just, I just don't know off the top of my head how many there is in that.

Alice Lema: Well, and it's still pretty early on, so I'm sure maybe next time when you guys come on the radio show, we'll, we'll talk more about that. So but does the billing department have any concerns about the technology or the actual construction of 3D houses? Because I don't know if people are aware. I think this is the first one in the city of Medford, isn't it? To, to use that, that 3D technology.

Kimberly London: [00:36:00] Absolutely. So Sam just popped in because I'm laughing. Hi Sam. So there's gonna be 36 to start and 80. Yes.

Alice Lema: Yes. That's a lot.

Kimberly London: Yes. And a total of 80 for, and I, I believe it's two subdivisions, but I could be mistaken on that.

Alice Lema: Well, that would make sense. Yeah. If you're gonna end up with 80, that, that would make sense. Wow. Mm-hmm. And then yeah, because it's new technology, how did the building department feel about this?

Kimberly London: It's exciting. We like new construction methods. They're gonna change every three years anyway with our code cycles. So we might as well jump the gun on that.

And it's very exciting. I mean, it's one of the few places that's been doing this, so it's actually an honor to be able to offer this program and be, you know, one of the first people in Southern, the first in southern Oregon and possibly, I think there's one up [00:37:00] south, but I'll take second.

Alice Lema: Well, and I think it speaks again to you know, even though we're kind of a small town we really are at the forefront of a lot of really cool stuff. And I remember When the Jackson County Tax Assessor started putting all the, the tax stuff online and, and that was kind of a big deal for such a small town, and your website is extremely robust for such a small town. So we only have about 30 seconds left. How do people get ahold of you, Kimberly?

Okay. So if you need to email the building department, it's building@ city of medford.org. You can always go on our website. Everything's on there to get in contact with the different departments. Building department will have a position open soon. So watch City of Medford job openings. So please bear with us. If you've called [00:38:00] or you're not getting the prompt, prompt response, please leave us a message. We will get back to you. We are short staffed at the front counter.

But you're great. You guys are great. Thank you so much. Kimberly London city of Medford Development Services specialist. Please come back on later in the summer and give us another update.

 Have a beautiful Southern Oregon weekend. Everybody hug those you love, and we'll see you next week. Bye now.