Business is booming so much in Lathrop that they need some extra help to keep up with all of the demand.

Last week the Lathrop City Council approved a task order to an existing contract with 4Leaf Inc. – the consulting firm that has been helping to provide plan checks, inspection services, and other tasks while the city searches for a chief building official to perform those duties on an ongoing basis.

The agreement, which is set not to exceed $136,000 and is assessed on a time and materials basis, prolongs an existing agreement that was last extended by the Lathrop City Council in 2019 and will be in place through 2021.

Because of the current building market in Northern California, the city has had a hard time finding somebody qualified to serve as the city’s in-house chief building official – the position responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the building department.

According to the staff report, increases in construction across the board – not just for residential and commercial development, which has been booming, but also for capital improvement projects, private land development, and ongoing industrial development and growth – has created the need for additional services that will help the city keep up with the demand that is being placed on it as more and more people move to the community and more businesses come in to serve that growing residential base.

The task order is the 17th since Lathrop signed an agreement with 4Leaf in 2015, and at least three of those change orders were for work pertaining to the role of a chief building official – a position that Lathrop is currently recruiting for. According to the city’s website, the position would be augmented by a permit and plan check specialist position that is also being advertised.

With several large residential developments underway in Lathrop – River Islands, which will add more than 11,000 homes to the community, and the Central Lathrop development near Lathrop High School – and two large industrial developments that will add millions of square feet of available space to the city’s already exploding light-industrial portfolio, growth has been exploding in Lathrop and keeping city staff busy with managing current construction and planning for future growth as interest in the South County community grows and more people move into the city limits.

According to the city’s website, the building department – of which 4Leaf is currently helping operate – is responsible for the enforcement of all building standards, providing responsive service to the building public, reviewing construction plans, providing competent investigations for complaints, and providing education to builders and the general public about new regulations and methods.