City Performing Plan Review
and Inspections on New Schools
For the first time in the history of school construction in the City of O’Fallon, Building
Inspectors from the Planning and Zoning Department, Building and Inspections Division are now performing reviews and inspections on all new construction in the city schools. This was made possible by new legislation passed in 2007 by the State of Illinois and through a cooperative effort involving city building officials, St. Clair County Regional Office of Education, local School Districts 90 (K-8), District 203 (High School), and District 104 (Central).
In the past, all new school construction was exempt from the local jurisdiction’s review and inspection and was solely the responsibility of the county school superintendant’s office and the local superintendant. While City staff are certain that these buildings were constructed in such a way that they were safe for our community’s children, the benefit of local code official’s expertise will allow us to make sure that the buildings are as safe as possible for our children.
The Illinois Council of Code Administrators, with the strong support of local code organizations like Code Enforcement Officials of Southern Illinois of which O’Fallon is a member, has actively lobbied the state legislature over the last five years to get the laws changed allowing for plan reviews and inspections to be done if the municipality chose to do so. This had previously been met with opposition from the State School Board, which had wanted to remain autonomous and keep those functions under their control. However, it was observed throughout the state that most schools were being built without the benefit of these all too important inspections.
“We have always wanted to have the local schools that house our communities’ children during the day to adhere to the same standards as all other buildings within our respective municipalities,” said Jeff Stehman, City of O’Fallon Building Code Official. “This city has been committed to ensuring that the buildings constructed here are the safest and best built in the area, and we believed that with the change in the state law, the school districts and the St. Clair County Regional Office of Education would feel the same way. The state law requires that if the municipality chooses to perform reviews and inspections, it must be done by inspectors and reviewers with a certain level of certifications and training, of which the O’Fallon building staff has.”
In the City of O’Fallon, all commercial building plans for structures over 4,000 square feet are sent out to a Certified Plan Review firm, with the fee paid by the building owner. We realized all schools would fall under this requirement, so when the law became effective there were discussions with administrative staff and Mayor Graham on how to best implement this program. The Mayor was the first to approach the schools on this as their new projects were submitted for building permits. He was very pleased at the enthusiastic cooperation he received from the O’Fallon Schools, who all have agreed to the external plan review and inspections by the city inspectors. This support has shown the school’s commitment to building the safest possible schools in
O’Fallon. The St. Clair County Regional Office of Education, Superintendent Brad Harriman, and his staff have been instrumental in the success of this effort and work closely with city inspectors.
 The city has experienced a significant number of school additions/renovations, and new construction recently. Fortunately, we were able to implement the new process on all of the following school projects:
District 90 renovation of the old police department for district offices
The new Joe Arthur Middle School
O’Fallon High School addition
New Jr. High School
District 203 Milburn School Campus
The success of this effort has been a good example of what intergovernmental cooperation can do to build a better community and keep all of its resident’s safe, affording them the highest level of safety.
Residents can keep up to date on what is
happening in the City of O’Fallon by
logging onto our
Official City Web Site
To find out how city government operates
and to better understand the role of the city administrator,
log on to the City’s Web Site at
to view City Administrator Walter Denton’s
web log !!
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