Orange County Government is in violation of NC General Statutes

[Brian Ehrenfeld]

Greetings,

This email is to serve as notice that Orange County Government is in violation of NC General Statutes 160D-1110 and SL2024-49.  It is very telling about the lack of leadership when some contractor has to point out compliance issues with NC General Assembly legislation.

1)The Orange County Inspections Department and Orange County Planning Departments are under strict controls as directed by the NC General Assembly to review Residential Building Permit Applications within 15 days and starting on day 20, refund 10% of fees per day.

The General Assembly is clear that refunds are not "if the property owner asks" but Shall Refund.

Orange County needs to audit all building permits issued to determine how much money needs to be returned to the applicants when permits are not reviewed within the allotted time.

2) The Orange County Inspections Department needs to stop requiring owners to get separate building permits if they are building their house along with a detached garage or workshop.  I know this is happening as I was just required to submit for dual permits for a garage and pool house project.  This doubles many of the permitting costs and printing costs.

Orange County needs to audit all building permits issued to determine when dual permits were required to see how much money needs to be returned to these applicants.

3) Per SL2024-49, we are also requesting all other agencies and departments complete their review concurrently as they are required by NC law.  This means that as soon as an application is received, it needs to be disseminated to any applicable departments(Building, Planning, Zoning, Erosion, Public Works, etc) so they immediately start their review process.  It would be illegal to have the Erosion Control Department wait until the Building Inspections completes their review, then pass the project onto the Planning Department.

Best,

Brian Ehrenfeld

BuildEx

General Contractor

Br...@goBuildex.com  | Email

www.GoBuildEx.com  |  Website

919.901.0423 m  

[Travis Myren]

Mr. Ehrenfeld,

 

Thank you for your email.  We will investigate the issues you have raised and get back to you shortly.

 

Travis Myren

County Manager

O:  919-245-2308  M:  608-345-1526

tmy...@orangecountync.gov

 

 

 

 

From: Brian Ehrenfeld <br...@gobuildex.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2025 4:53 PM
To: ALL_BOCC_MANAGER_CLERK <OCB...@orangecountync.gov>; Travis Myren <tmy...@orangecountync.gov>
Subject: Orange County Government is in violation of NC General Statutes

 

CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless verified. Report suspicious emails with the Phish Alert Button located on your Outlook menu bar on the Home tab.

Greetings,

 

This email is to serve as notice that Orange County Government is in violation of NC General Statutes 160D-1110 and SL2024-49.  It is very telling about the lack of leadership when some contractor has to point out compliance issues with NC General Assembly legislation.

 

1)The Orange County Inspections Department and Orange County Planning Departments are under strict controls as directed by the NC General Assembly to review Residential Building Permit Applications within 15 days and starting on day 20, refund 10% of fees per day.

The General Assembly is clear that refunds are not "if the property owner asks" but Shall Refund.

Orange County needs to audit all building permits issued to determine how much money needs to be returned to the applicants when permits are not reviewed within the allotted time.

 

2) The Orange County Inspections Department needs to stop requiring owners to get separate building permits if they are building their house along with a detached garage or workshop.  I know this is happening as I was just required to submit for dual permits for a garage and pool house project.  This doubles many of the permitting costs and printing costs.

Orange County needs to audit all building permits issued to determine when dual permits were required to see how much money needs to be returned to these applicants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Per SL2024-49, we are also requesting all other agencies and departments complete their review concurrently as they are required by NC law.  This means that as soon as an application is received, it needs to be disseminated to any applicable departments(Building, Planning, Zoning, Erosion, Public Works, etc) so they immediately start their review process.  It would be illegal to have the Erosion Control Department wait until the Building Inspections completes their review, then pass the project onto the Planning Department.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brian Ehrenfeld]

Thanks.

I would like you to investigate all residential building permits applications that have been submitted since July 1, 2024, not just mine.  The statute requires Orange County to issue refunds of 10% starting on day 20 after the date of submission.  Nowhere in this Statute does it put the onus on the applicant to request permit fees to be refunded.  Just as the permitting office can calculate all the fees that I have to pay, it should be able to calculate fee reductions per this Statute.

You also need to educate all the department managers to perform their reviews concurrently starting on the date the residential building permits are submitted. 

Best,

Brian Ehrenfeld

BuildEx

General Contractor

Br...@goBuildex.com  | Email

www.GoBuildEx.com  |  Website

919.901.0423 m  

[Brian Ehrenfeld]

All,

After logging into the OC Portal, I did notice my second residential permit had been voided.  We are slowly making progress as you are violating fewer state laws.

This weekend, I did have some time to take a deeper dive into the legislation.  The General Assembly passed this legislation on 8/16/2023.  For the past 2 1/2 years, Orange County government has failed to bring their Inspection and Planning department into compliance.  We are spending $2,440,615 annually on these departments.  With all this money spent on personnel in 2023, 2024 and 2025, not one single employee bothered to read legislation that directly affected their day to day policies?   Over this 2 1/2 year period, neither the general council nor other top managers had any compliance discussions with the Building and Planning Departments?  I find this hard to believe.

All of you have an obligation to figure out why this lapse of institution control was allowed to happen.   The worst part of this is the people of Orange County suffered through double application and review fees and outrageous wait times to start their residential projects.

WRAL even investigated House Bill 488 as they have done with all the statewide changes to the building code.

These reporters read through the code changes but the Orange County staff, who we pay millions of dollars per year in salaries, were oblivious to these changes?

How does this happen?

https://www.wral.com/story/some-concerned-building-code-freeze-could-leave-new-builds-in-nc-decades-out-of-date/21014568/

Best,

Brian Ehrenfeld

BuildEx

General Contractor

Br...@goBuildex.com  | Email

www.GoBuildEx.com  |  Website

919.901.0423 m  

[Cy Stober]

Mr. Ehrenfeld,

 

Thank you for bringing this matter to the commissioners’ attention. I wish you had contacted me prior to reaching this statutory deadline so I could have intervened and prevented further delay on your permit review. Per State law, we have calculated your $526.94 Building Permit refund, reflecting its 3 days overage of the required 20-day permit review deadline. Orange County will reflect and itemize this refund as a reduction of your total permit fees.

 

In regard to your second comment about requiring a single permit for multiple structures: Orange County is in full agreement with you regarding this legal requirement. In communication with applicants, we discourage this permitting approach because it can complicate inspections and delay approvals due to Building Code compliance matters that only affect one structure on the permit. Examples could include a garage being placed on a septic drain field while the primary residence is not; a primary building not being fit for occupation due to unmet code needs in an accessory structure; or an accessory structure requiring stormwater management and necessitating new permits that are otherwise not required for the primary residence. Orange County defers to the applicant’s right to have a single residential building permit but permitting structures separately avoids these complications and delays. Staff comments reflect this position.

 

In regard to your final comment, Orange County does review related permits and plans concurrent to the Building plans. The Building Permit application was not initialized so plans reviews had not yet begun. As with all residential permits, concurrent reviews will be done for your plans.

 

Thank you,

 

Cy Stober

Planning & Inspections Director

 

(919) 245-2585 (Office)

(919) 430-0446 (Cell)

(919) 245-2592 (Direct)

E-mail: cst...@orangecountync.gov

 

131 W. Margaret Lane, Suite 201, P.O. Box 8181 Hillsborough, NC 27278

Planning & Inspections Webpage

Applications, Forms, and Submittal Information

Winner of the 2025 NC Sedimentation Control Commission’s Best All-Around Program

 

     

 

Pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 132, correspondence sent and received from

this account is a public record and may be disclosed to third parties.

[Brian Ehrenfeld]

Thanks for your response but I feel you are just saying what is supposed to be said.  I took the time to apply for a single permit for both the Pool House and Detailed garage.  This is the response in Black:

Then I took the time to reapply as separate permits and got the response in Red.

After all this runaround, David Shivers, the property owner, called the plan reviewer(Christopher, I think) on a 3 way call which I was a part of.  The plan reviewer told us that the plans still needed to be redrawn so 'he would not get confused"

between the garage vs the pool house.  

All these emails are public record so why don't you read what your staff is actually telling the public?

How can your staff not know about reviewing within 15 days?  Do you not train them about General Statutes?

Best,

Brian Ehrenfeld

BuildEx

General Contractor

Br...@goBuildex.com  | Email

www.GoBuildEx.com  |  Website

919.901.0423 m  

[Jean Hamilton]

Dear Mr. Ehrenfeld,

 

On behalf of the BOCC, thank you for your emails that stated and clarified your concerns about the permit process. We will follow up with the County Manager and Planning Director about these matters.

 

Sincerely,

Jean

 

Jean Hamilton, Chair

Orange County Board of Commissioners

---

From: Brian Ehrenfeld <br...@gobuildex.com>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 4:05 PM
To: Cy Stober <cst...@orangecountync.gov>
Cc: ALL_BOCC_MANAGER_CLERK <OCB...@orangecountync.gov>; Michael Rettie <mre...@orangecountync.gov>; Travis Myren <tmy...@orangecountync.gov>

[Cy Stober]

Mr. Ehrenfeld,

 

Thank you for your response.

 

In regard to my staff’s awareness of the law, this event has brought to light the need to reorient the administrative staff on the relevant changes made to the 160D and 143A in the past several years. There is no excuse for this oversight and the responsibility for this permit review delay beyond the legally-required window is ultimately mine. Chief Building Official Michael Rettie and I will provide the staff with direction and training to ensure that it does not occur again.

 

In regard to Mr. Wiggins’s comments, having reviewed your submittal myself, I would echo them. The plans are confusing and difficult to read. Separating the structural elements, or revising the drawings to make the proposed structures and their differing uses clearer to the plans reviewer, would be helpful. It is a reasonable request from Mr. Wiggins in his review role, just as it is reasonable for you to refuse, as you are legally entitled. Any resulting comments may reflect his already stated difficulty in reviewing the submitted plans.

 

Thank you,

 

Cy Stober

Planning & Inspections Director

 

(919) 245-2585 (Office)

(919) 430-0446 (Cell)

(919) 245-2592 (Direct)

E-mail: cst...@orangecountync.gov

 

131 W. Margaret Lane, Suite 201, P.O. Box 8181 Hillsborough, NC 27278

Planning & Inspections Webpage

Applications, Forms, and Submittal Information

 

    

---

From: Jean Hamilton <jham...@orangecountync.gov>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 7:22:27 PM
To: Brian Ehrenfeld <br...@gobuildex.com>; Cy Stober <cst...@orangecountync.gov>
Cc: ALL_BOCC_MANAGER_CLERK <OCB...@orangecountync.gov>; Michael Rettie <mre...@orangecountync.gov>; Travis Myren <tmy...@orangecountync.gov>
Subject: Re: Orange County Government is in violation of NC General Statutes

 

Dear Mr. Ehrenfeld,

 

On behalf of the BOCC, thank you for your emails that stated and clarified your concerns about the permit process. We will follow up with the County Manager and Planning Director about these matters.

 

Sincerely,

Jean

 

Jean Hamilton, Chair

Orange County Board of Commissioners

 

---

From: Brian Ehrenfeld <br...@gobuildex.com>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 4:05 PM
To: Cy Stober <cst...@orangecountync.gov>
Cc: ALL_BOCC_MANAGER_CLERK <OCB...@orangecountync.gov>; Michael Rettie <mre...@orangecountync.gov>; Travis Myren <tmy...@orangecountync.gov>
Subject: Re: Orange County Government is in violation of NC General Statutes

 

CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless verified. Report suspicious emails with the Phish Alert Button located on your Outlook menu bar on the Home tab.

Thanks for your response but I feel you are just saying what is supposed to be said.  I took the time to apply for a single permit for both the Pool House and Detailed garage.  This is the response in Black:

 

 

Then I took the time to reapply as separate permits and got the response in Red.

 

After all this runaround, David Shivers, the property owner, called the plan reviewer(Christopher, I think) on a 3 way call which I was a part of.  The plan reviewer told us that the plans still needed to be redrawn so 'he would not get confused"

between the garage vs the pool house.  

 

All these emails are public record so why don't you read what your staff is actually telling the public?

 

 

How can your staff not know about reviewing within 15 days?  Do you not train them about General Statutes?

 

[Brian Ehrenfeld]

Thanks for your response.

Hopefully we can agree that you and your staff need additional training to ensure compliance.

From the property owner's phone conversation with Christopher Wiggins where the owner added to me as a 3 way call, the tone of this call with more a critique about the document layout by the licensed architect and professional engineer.  We were told the plans would not get reviewed unless each structure were placed on separate documents. Your plan reviewers are free to give their opinion about the plans but unless they have an architectural or engineering degree, I feel their critiques are unjustified, unnecessary and very unprofessional.  The scope of the plan review needs to be for compliance with all applicable NC Residential Codes, not an opinion about the document layout.  Or how they would present the documents if they were an architect or engineer.

I will relay your critiques to my licensed architect and professional engineer.

Started in August of 2023, all your violations need to be audited.  The General Statutes are crystal clear that you shall refund 10% of the fees starting on day 20 and shall not require more than one permit for simultaneous residential projects.  

Your violations resulted in more than a need to apologize, you need to write refunds checks to EVERYONE you did this to.  

What you did is unacceptable and needs an audit from the timestamp on the email submissions via email address OCBuildi...@orangecountync.gov

With my permit, I have noticed a huge discrepancy between the timestamp on my email submission vs the start dates listed on the inspection portal.

The clock starts at plan submission, not when someone from your department actually looks at it.  

I am sure I am not the only one your department has wronged.

Best,

Brian Ehrenfeld

BuildEx

General Contractor

Br...@goBuildex.com  | Email

www.GoBuildEx.com  |  Website

919.901.0423 m