Composition; administrator. There is established in the City a State Uniform Construction Code enforcing agency to be known as the "Construction Department" consisting of a Construction Official, Building Subcode Official, Electrical Subcode Official, Fire Protection Subcode Official, Plumbing Subcode Official and such other subcode officials for such additional subcodes as the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, State of New Jersey, shall hereafter adopt as part of the State Uniform Construction Code. The Construction Official shall be the chief administrator of the enforcing agency.[1]

Official positions; qualifications. Each official position created in this section shall be filled by a person qualified for such position, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:27D-119 et seq., as amended, and N.J.A.C. 5:23, provided that, in lieu of any particular subcode official, an on-site inspection agency may be retained by contract, pursuant to N.J.A.C. 5:23. More than one such official position may be held by the same person, provided that such person is qualified pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:27D-119 et seq. and N.J.A.C. 5:23 to hold each such position.

Public office. The public shall have the right to do business with the enforcing agency at the offices of the Construction Department, except for emergencies and unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances.[2]

Appeals. All appeals shall be handled by the Burlington County Construction Board of Appeals.[3]

No person shall be charged a construction permit surcharge fee or enforcing agency fee for any construction, reconstruction, alteration or improvement designed and undertaken solely to promote accessibility by disabled persons to an existing private structure or any of the facilities contained therein.

A disabled person, or a parent or sibling of a disabled person, shall not be required to pay any municipal fee or charge in order to secure a construction permit for any construction, reconstruction, alteration or improvement which promotes accessibility to his own living unit.

"Disabled person" means a person who has the total and permanent inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment, including blindness, and shall include, but not be limited to, any resident of this state who is disabled pursuant to the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 416), or the federal Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 (45 U.S.C. § 231 et seq.), or is rated as having a sixty-percent disability or higher pursuant to any federal law administered by the United States Veterans' Act For purposes of this subsection, "blindness" means central visual acuity 20/200 or less in the better eye with the use of a correcting lens. An eye which is accompanied by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20° shall be considered as having a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less.

In order to provide for the training, certification and technical support programs required by the Uniform Construction Code Act and the regulations, the enforcing agency shall collect in addition to the fees specified, a surcharge fee as set forth in Chapter 146, Fee Schedule.

The enforcing agency shall report annually at the end of each fiscal year to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, not later than July 31, the total amount of the surcharge fees collected in the fiscal year. In the fiscal year in which the regulations first become effective, the report shall be for the third and fourth quarters only.