Responsibilities

Overview

The Building Board of Appeals is a quasi-judicial board that reviews variance requests and appeals of Fernley’s building codes. The board hears and determines appeals from denial of building permits. The findings and decision of the board are final, subject only to judicial review.

Codes are of practical necessity and abridgement of the studies, discussions, arguments, and debates, which provide the necessary data on which decisions are made when any items is being considered for adoption. Since all of the data and information gathered and discussed cannot be incorporated into the codes, they must be condensed to what is considered relevant. This condensation plus the absence of annotation could result in certain seeming ambiguities requiring interpretation.

Building Code Interpretation

With hundreds of different persons administering the codes, different interpretations are inevitable. As a consequence, an interpretation rendered by a building official under certain circumstances may be challenged. There may be times when a new product or method of construction is proposed on which the building official takes a negative stand.

These are situations in which a member of the public is entitled to a hearing before a qualified board to determine the validity of the action of the building official. The building official may at times convene the board to assist in evaluating the merits of a proposed product or method of construction, or even to assist in the interpretations of the code provisions.