February 15, 2007      |      www.BuildingEdgeMagazine.com

www.BuildingEdgeMagazine.com

The February issue of Building Edge will be out soon, and is available online today. Our February cover story is about long-time member of the Gainesville building industry, Scott and Wanda Robinson,  Robinson Renovation & Custom Homes, Inc.

Our March issue, featured K&R Construction, and the National Focus Section is on the latest trends in windows.  You should expect to receive this issue the 2^nd week of March.

The April issue of Building Edge is currently open, featuring the builders of the Spring Parade of Homes™. This is the bonus distribution issue, with extra copies being mailed to the participating builders and delivered around Gainesville and Ocala. The National Feature is onKitchens: Appliances, cabinets, sinks, faucets, lighting and countertops.

Impact Fees May be On the Rise
Impact fees on new homes could more than double, and the charges on some businesses could jump by even more sizable amounts, under a new Alachua County calculation of the cost of roadwork necessary because of new growth. Increased fees are needed to pay for the rising cost of road construction, officials said. The fees are drawing mixed reviews.
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Butler Plaza Expansion Being Planned
Plans for an expansion that would nearly double the size of Butler Plaza could be ready for review by state and local regulators this spring. Clark Butler announced recently that he is putting together plans to ask for a DRI on 145 acres north of the center on Archer Road. He anticipates the request will include 1.25 million square feet of retail space, along with offices, hotels and possibly a medical facility.
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More Big Box Stores on the Way
Alachua County is poised for an increase of big box stores that may lead to new retail corridors and could change where people go to shop. Bulldozers pushed dirt around a field recently that in eight months will sprout a 96,000-square-foot Home Depot in north Gainesville. Two open fields, one in east Gainesville, another in the city of Alachua, are slated to house Wal-Mart Supercenters, and the company is still considering another Supercenter site on Archer Road.
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New Development Receives Water Board Approval
A proposed 940-home development on the northern border of San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park has cleared an early first hurdle. The Suwannee River Water Management District Governing Board on Tuesday unanimously approved the project's environmental resource permit. It would be built within the Alachua city limits on 316 acres between the park and U.S. 441.
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Paving to Occur
Residents driving along the pothole-riddled Marion Oaks Trail may soon have a smoother ride along that 3-mile stretch of road - and others like it in the sprawling subdivision - when they are repaved. There has been a tug of war in recent months between Marion Oaks developer Deltona Corp. and the county over paving the road, resulting in an issue that has left residents caught in the middle trying to get someone to help. The two sides are working to finalize an agreement to create a timeline of when roads in several units of the residential community will be paved by Deltona and then turned over to the county for maintenance.
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Operation Rebuild to Help in Tornado Areas
The Florida Home Builders Association and the HBA of Lake County last week hosted OPERATION REBUILD: Building Florida Back Better - a construction fair to help citizens devastated by Central Florida tornados with their construction repair and rebuilding needs. Operation Rebuild is a service the Florida Home Builders Association provides to communities hard-hit by natural disasters. In addition to FHBA and the HBA of Lake County, the following organizations participated in the initiative include: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA,) Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Disaster Contractors Network, Lake County Building Officials, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the Institute for Business and Home Safety, and the Florida Roofing, Sheet Metal and AC Contractors Association.
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Rutenberg Elected to NAHB Post
Barry Rutenberg has returned to his familiar role as one of Florida's most influential voices on the national housing scene. At the International Builders Show in Orlando, the Gainesville builder and Florida Home Builders Association Past President was elected Area V National Vice President by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).  His election means that Rutenberg will represent Florida and Puerto Rico on the NAHB Executive Board along with Tampa builder Chuck Fowke, who will serve another term as State Representative from Florida.  Rutenberg succeeds Sandy Miot of Miami as the Area V leader.
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Insurance Changes Impacting Builders
Florida's homebuilding industry has been feeling the effects of the recent property insurance reform law that eliminated an internal pressure design option. Many local governments are already enforcing the immediate elimination despite the Florida Home Builders Association's attempts to seek a delay in the implementation. The immediate elimination has already created a $72 million negative impact on Florida's construction industry.
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Program Helps Develop Affordable Homes
A national housing research institution began a program Thursday aimed at building affordable homes in southeastern Florida so that teachers, firefighters and other middle-income workers can live closer to their jobs and avoid long commutes that have led to traffic jams and suburban sprawl. The Urban Land Institute announced the birth of its Center for Workplace Housing, which will initially focus on three markets - Florida from Palm BeachCounty to Miami, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. - in an effort that the non-profit group hopes will produce 3,500 new units of affordable housing within five years.
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Green Techniques on the Rise, Congress Told
Alaska home builder Jack Hebert told Congress this week that the housing industry is committed to implementing green building techniques that reduce energy consumption in both new and existing homes, improve indoor and outdoor air quality and conserve water and natural resources. Hebert, who serves as a National Representative of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), said that the nation's home builders support green building and energy efficiency legislation that is voluntary, market-driven and cost-effective for builders and consumers.
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NAHB and ICC Work toward Uniformity
The National Association of Home Builders and the International Code Council have teamed up with the attempt to bring uniformity to sustainable building practices. Their goal, announced at IBS in Orlando, is to create strong, sturdy homes that have less strain on the world's limited resources. The International Code Council also wants to educate its members on green building.
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California Builder Elected NAHB President
California home builder Brian Catalde was elected as the 2007 president of the 235,000-member National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) during the association's 63rd annual International Builders' Show in Orlando. A driving force in the Southern California home building industry for more than 30 years, Catalde is president and chief operating officer of El Segundo-based Paragon Communities, a company he founded in the early 1980s. Paragon specializes in single-family homes ranging from entry level to luxury, and builds multifamily condominiums and commercial projects.
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 Jacksonville Association Recognized at IBS
The Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA) of Jacksonville, Fla. was awarded the 2006 National Housing Endowment Home Builders Care Community Service Project of the Year Award at the International Builders' Show. The association received the prestigious award, which recognizes a homebuilders association for outstanding community service. The association was honored with award for the first time in 2002 award for their work with the elderly in their community.
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Professional Photos Help Sell Homes
The New York Times illustrated the difference that can arise from taking a photograph of a home yourself as opposed to hiring a profession photographer. A professional photographer can help to ensure that the home being displayed gives off a good impression. The article cited that 80 percent of people across the country who bought a new home last year used the Internet in their shopping, and they rated photographs as the most useful tool in their search.
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Commercial Boom along Gulf Coast
The newest, multibillion-dollar wave of construction on the northern Gulf Coast is along the piney banks of a manmade ditch, protected from the twin threats of storms and high land prices. With beachfront acreage in ever-shrinking supply and much of the coast still recovering from hurricanes, developers are putting up luxury condominium towers, shopping areas and marinas on the 1,300-mile Gulf Intracoastal Waterway - despite concerns the trend could endanger navigation on a vital commercial artery. Alabama and south Texas are at the heart of the boom, with about 6,000 condominiums worth more than $3 billion planned in just one Alabama county. But developers, the Army Corps of Engineers and waterway users agree that the work going on now in just a few hot spots could spread quickly and alter hundreds of miles of land fronting the channel along the Gulf of Mexico coast.
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Legislative Conference Planned
ABCFlorida is urging all members of the building industry to attend the Tallahassee Legislative Conference scheduled for April 10 and 11. Any industry member concerned about the effect of government regulation on their business should consider attending. Issues that the group will work on with legislators include reform and funding for the state's Apprenticeship/Workforce Development Program, eliminating the imbalance between the statutory OCIP requirement for tail coverage and the availability of adequate coverage in the marketplace and guarding against new licensing requirements for crane operators.
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