A split Warren County board on the issue of building inspections stayed that way Monday, as the board opted out of adopting a new statewide building code.

Citing cost in general, supervisors voted 3-2 to follow steps laid out by the Legislature to opt out of the new law created by last spring’s signing of Senate Bill 2378. It requires counties and cities to adopt any of the last three editions of the International Building Code as a minimum standard and codes in the Mississippi Builders Codes Council, which addresses plumbing and electrical standards. Adopting any version of the industry standards by Warren County would make new homes and businesses subject to inspection for the first time.

District 1 Supervisor John Arnold, a real estate agent by trade and the strongest voice on the board in favor of codes, essentially voted for the standards by opposing the opt-out motion from District 5 Supervisor Richard George.

“We have new industry coming in, we have executives coming in,” Arnold said, who referred to a place on sale-closing papers for homes where real estate agents must check off whether a structure has been inspected according to a building code. “They will not buy a house if it’s not marked ‘yes.’”

Arnold, joined by District 3 supervisor Charles Selmon in voting against the opt-out, said the county allowed the City of Vicksburg’s building inspection crew to inspect the new annex building under construction at River Region Medical Center, which is outside city limits.

“The construction company would not work on it without a code,” Arnold said. “We had to allow them to step outside the city limits to inspect and run it through their building code.”

Existing buildings would not have been subject to the law’s provisions, and homeowners were not barred from hiring any professional of their choice to improve their properties. Counties had 90 days to opt out after it became effective Aug. 1. Among exemptions written into the bill involved structures such as manufactured homes, mobile homes, hunting/fishing camps and certain other commerce-related structures. Other structures not subject to the law are structures built at the Neshoba County Fair and those used for personal-use timber from Pearl River County. It would not affect future eligibility for buying out property damaged in floods.

No construction or land-use regulations exist in non-municipal Warren County. Construction outside the city involves only a building permit that costs $5 in most cases. Inside the city, building a home or business can cost between $15 and $1,660, depending on value according to industry standards. Arnold said an inspections apparatus in the county “would pay for itself, through inspection fees.”

Annual base salary for the city’s building inspector is about $71,000, according to city budget figures.

George said the county could afford to wait until the fiscal 2015-16 budget process to calculate the price tag of an inspections department.

“To successfully plan for the future, you need to know how much it’s going to cost you and how you’re going to pay for it,” George said before moving to opt out. “We have no option but to opt out and spend some time in the next year to investigate how we’ll finance an inspections department to cover this county.”

Board President Bill Lauderdale criticized the bill for not providing a funding mechanism for putting it into place.

“What I have a problem with is this Senate bill, which was an unfunded mandate saying all counties have to do it by a certain time,” Lauderdale said. “I disagree that it will pay for itself. That remains to be seen.”

In 2007, a comprehensive land-use plan for non-municipal Warren County was completed by Central Mississippi Planning and Development District after about 18 months of study. The county board to date has not adopted it. In it, the northeastern part of the county where the most development i has taken place in the past decade is advised to stay “medium-residential.” Most of the rest of non-municipal Warren County is recommended for agricultural use. The study cost the county $85,000 to have crafted.