Wichita approves new rules for slab home construction

New regulations designed to tighten the city's control over residential slab foundations were passed 5-1 Tuesday by the Wichita City Council.

Council member Michael O'Donnell voted no.

Approved were sweeping changes in the way slab homes without basements are built, including soil testing at all new construction sites to determine the ground's vulnerability to shifting.

Also required will be steel reinforcement for foundations, and specific fill dirt under the foundations, depending on the type of ground the home is being built upon.

"Hopefully, this will be a benefit for the slab homes coming up," said vice mayor Lavonta Williams.

Council member Janet Miller praised the engineers and architects who made up the city task force that recommended the changes.

"This is an area way beyond my pay grade, so I'm very glad these people took this project on and that we're facing these new requirements.

James Roseboro, president of Wichita Independent Neighborhoods and a resident of the Northeast Heights neighborhood in Wichita, said the changes were "long overdue."

"Some of the problems in my neighborhood could have been avoided a few years back with these rules," he said.

The regulations were recommended after an Eagle investigation late last year found that a half-dozen slab houses in the Maple Shade subdivision at Harry and Webb Road were cracking apart due to unstable soil, drainage problems and inadequate foundation reinforcement.

O'Donnell said he thinks the new slab guidelines represent over-regulation.

"It is more regulation in an area that many could argue with merit is over-regulated," he said. "The Maple Shade issue is an anomaly that the builder should be responsible to repair and not change the rules for everyone else."

The city inspectors "are not builders and therefore I would suggest not extremely qualified to regulate the home builders in our city. We put Wichita at a disadvantage when we have more regulations than the other cities in our region."

The city formed the task force in January, and it spent seven months studying the Maple Shade issues. The task force determined that the Maple Shade houses were built to city codes, which didn't provide for any soil testing or steel reinforcement in foundations and didn't require foundation inspections by city officials.

"That's what's led to some failures in slabs on grade in the past," said Kurt Schroeder, the city's director of central inspection.

One homeowner, Betty Wiens, invested $80,000 in repairs to her $141,000, five-year old home. Others have lesser damage bills, some that have been addressed by former Maple Shade developer Steve Miller.

Miller has since sold the remaining lots in the subdivision.

This story was originally published September 13, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Wichita approves new rules for slab home construction."