Tom Feeney: “I have a friend who is a civil engineer, and his primary job is to certify each and every set of plans, which is now…”

“I have a friend who is a civil engineer, and his primary job is to certify each and every set of plans, which is now required since the 1993 changes. I remember asking him at one point, because he designs dozens or hundreds of homes, Why would he have to certify each set of new plans for each new home? Why could he not just certify a model? Would that not be a lot less expensive, cheaper? And his answer was that every location and every building is a little bit different and that, absent this, some day we may regret that we did not require the diligence that the gentlewoman is talking about. That is in the design stage. Obviously, we required more substantial materials in places. We required storm shutters in certain areas. We have allowed those people to take discounts from their insurance if they would go out and purchase storm shutters. All of that investment was some of the best money ever spent by individual home buyers and home builders in Florida, and I think we are all grateful that we changed, and we were adaptable, we were flexible after Andrew.”