photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

Douglas County leaders will consider repealing and replacing an entire chapter of county construction codes this week.

If approved by the Douglas County Commission at its Wednesday meeting, construction codes for the unincorporated areas of the county would be updated to align with the 2018 International Code Council series of construction codes, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

Other changes would include a new permit fee methodology assigning valuations for new residential, commercial and accessory building construction, and the adoption of appendices allowing for light straw-clay construction, straw-bale construction and tiny-house construction.

According to supporting materials included with this week’s agenda, Douglas County last adopted updated codes in September of 2012.

In other business, the commission will:

• Consider terminating the county’s COVID-19 disaster declaration. The commission declared a state of local disaster emergency March 17, 2020, which was extended several times until the commission decided the declaration would remain in effect until it was terminated. The county’s Unified Command team demobilized last week and recommended that the disaster declaration be terminated.

• Hear updates on the Housing Stabilization Collaborative and the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority’s engagement with local landlords to support community housing needs.

• Hear an update on the county’s truancy process and programs, which refers to the threshold for unexcused school absences accrued by students in the community.

• Consider taking action on a conditional use permit granted for a mini- or self-storage facility in the 1700 block of East 902 Road. The permit was approved by commissioners in May of 2017, but construction on the facility has not started yet and the county’s zoning and codes office is unable to perform a required five-year administrative review.

The applicant elected to allow the commission to review the permit and consider amending, suspending or revoking it; according to the meeting materials for this agenda item, this option allows the applicant the opportunity to make their case and explain why the structure hasn’t been constructed and when they plan to build.

Wednesday’s business meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. The meeting will also be available by Zoom. For meeting information, visit the county’s website: dgcoks.org/commissionmeetings.