By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Earlier this month South Central Planning brought in a slew of new employees to familiarize themselves with their inspection process designed to meet new Lousiana state uniform building code law, according to South Central Planning CEO Kevin Belanger.

The planning organization hired 12 new inspectors and plan reviewers, a certified building official, several information technology specialists, communication specialists and other employees, to institute South Central Planning’s regional code construction compliance program, which is less than a month old but is slowly becoming more advanced, according to Belanger.

For three months the new employees will follow representatives of the Institute for Building Technology and Safety to learn how to enforce the new codes before they take over the responsibilities.

South Central Planning has instituted its inspection process in St. John, St. James and Assumption Parishes, and anticipate to have it in place in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes by April 1. Those five parishes make up the entirety of the planning commission, which parish representatives agreed to join to ease the economic burden of enforcing State Act Number 12, which requires uniform building codes for new construction and has been enforced since the beginning of 2007.

Earlier this month the planning commission updated its website, and anyone can sign up to receive regular updates regarding the regional code construction compliance program at http://www.scpdc.org/scpdc/rbc_contact_signup.aspx.