Jefferson County - East-West Gateway Coordinating Council

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Access to Employment; Incommuting and Outcommuting
Jefferson County – Section 1
Approximately twice as many Jefferson County citizens commuted to work outside their
county of residence, as compared to citizens that worked within the county. According to
the 2000 Census, 32,250 individuals worked within their county of residence, and 1,480
worked outside of their state of residence. See Table J9 below.
TABLE J9 COMMUTING STATISTICS FOR JEFFERSON COUNTY
CATEGORY NUMBER PERCENT
COMMUTING TO WORK
Workers 16 years and over 98,030 100.0
Car, truck, or van -- drove alone 82,666 84.3
Car, truck, or van -- carpooled 11,929 12.2
Public transportation (including taxicab) 205 0.2
Walked 801 0.8
Other means 1,149 1.2
Worked at home 2,081 2.1
Mean travel time to work (minutes) 31.1 (X)
Codes/Regulations for Building, Stormwater, Fire, Zoning
Jefferson County, as a first class, non-charter county, is authorized under Missouri Revised
Statutes (RSMo 64.815) to prepare and utilize an official Master Plan.
Effective January 4th, 1999, the County Commission created the Department of Land Use,
Development, and Code Enforcement. Within this department is the Building Division with
the purpose of enforcing the Jefferson County Building Codes, which are adopted to
ensure public safety, health, and welfare in so far as they are affected by building
construction. On December 27, 1994 Jefferson County, under order 12-30-96, adopted a
resolution to establish minimum regulations regarding the design, construction, alteration,
enlargement, repair, demolition and removal in unincorporated areas of the county.
The Building Division was formed in 1967 to enforce the County Building Codes. The
adaptation of the 1996 Building Code Ordinance requiring Electrical and Sewer
Registration and Licensing was a significant change to the demands of the Division. The
responsibility for failing septic systems was assigned to the Building Division in 1999 when
the County Health Department (staff of eight) could no longer handle the volume of
complaints; this greatly impacting the workload on the Division. Codes that are
administered include: BOCA - 1996 (Building Official & Code Administrators); CABO – 1995
(Council of American Building Officials); NEC - 1996 (National Electrical Code NFPA 70);
BOCA-NFPC - 1996 (National Fire Prevention Code); IPC - 1995 (International Plumbing
Code); IMC - 1996 (International Mechanical Code), and the Jefferson County On-Site
Sewage Ordinance – 1996.
The Code Enforcement Division is another division under the Department of Land Use,
Development, and Code Enforcement. In 1986 the Jefferson County Commission adopted