Cumberland Department Officially Takes Over County’s Building Codes

With the start of the new year, the newly-formed Cumberland County Codes Department has officially taken over county building codes responsibility from Crossville.

County Codes Director Joshua Selby said Crossville was a big help in the transition.

“The city they uphold the codes really well, and they’ve done a good job of that,” Selby said. “So, our contractors are used to doing a good job and they’re used to doing all their work up to 2018 codes. So, the city guys did a great job. It was just the county just felt it was time to start doing it ourselves.”

Selby said they used the existing Crossville codes as a model to put together their codes. He said it will make it easier on homeowners and contractors who are used to operating under those rules.

“I put a lot of time, a lot of energy into this, our whole department has,” Selby said. “A lot of training has went into it. They’ll be able to do online permits. When we do an inspection, whether it fails or whether it passes, they’re going to get an email instantly letting them know.”

Selby said the process of creating county building codes came with some learning curves.

“It was learning a lot of the lingo and talking to the state,” Selby said. “A lot of it was lingo. A lot of these codes are not written for the laymen, so being able to identify those codes and what they mean in the real world.”

Selby said they are already busy with work as the county is experiencing tremendous growth. He said they’ve had a call about someone wanting to build over 40 townhomes. He said he is as looking forward to the eventual groundbreaking of Flatrock Motorclub.

Up until the new year Crossville was responsible for enforcing building codes in both the city and the county. This new department will take over the county responsibilities from the city, while Crossville’s codes department is still responsible for anything in the city limits