A developer Monday asked City Council to eliminate the longstanding requirement that most plumbing and electrical work in Altoona be performed by city-licensed tradespeople, to reduce development costs.

Tony Luther has avoided projects in the city before now, but plans to buy a blighted eight-unit apartment building near Fourth Avenue and Seventh Street, then gut it and renovate — a $750,000 project that will cost him $75,000 more than if he could use his regular plumbers and electricians, who lack city licenses, he told council.

Council members thanked Luther for his plans to invest in housing — creation of which is a top priority for city leadership — but didn’t promise to do what Luther requested.

Still, the city manager is looking at potential amendments to the licensing regulations, according to council members.

A $75,000 premium for a single project is “significant,” said Councilman Jesse Ickes, who is a friend of Luther’s and who has encouraged Luther to consider a city project.

“We need to look for ways to have a better system — more friendly for people that want to have work,” said Mayor Matt Pacifico.

It might be a good idea not to eliminate licensing, but rather the current experience requirements for testing to obtain a license, Pacifico said.

That would allow anyone — such as new graduates of the Greater Altoona Career & Technology Center — to take a test, and if they pass, to start practicing in the city, Pacifico said.

That would help ensure that work is done safely, while also allowing for an increase in the number of tradespeople operating in the city, thus increasing competition and lowering prices, according to Councilman Ron Beatty.

Eliminating the license requirement would make development less costly and speed blight reduction, according to Luther.

“There’s no better time than now to rid yourself of this dated ordinance,” he said.

Licensing of tradesmen may have been necessary decades ago to discourage shoddy and unsafe work, but with enforcement of permitting and inspections, which are requirements of both the city — and more recently the state under the Uniform Construction Code — licensing is superfluous, according to Luther.

Those who do trades work without obtaining permits and without their work being inspected are operating under zero city control, he said.

He seemed to imply that without licensing, there would be more permitted — and thus inspected — work.

City-licensed plumber Joe Eckels has no problem with Pacifico’s proposal to do away with the experience requirements for testing.

But like Pacifico, Eckels thinks that licensing should be retained — although he’s surprised it didn’t go away in 2006, when the state passed the UCC, he said.

He questioned whether the current licensing requirement makes development in the city more expensive.

He said he charges the same in Altoona as in surrounding municipalities where no such licensing exists.

He does 90% of his work outside the city, he said.

The scarcity of plumbers and electricians is the main driver of current high costs, Eckels said.

“Supply and demand,” he said.

It’s a scarcity that comes from fewer younger people coming into the trades in recent generations, a trend that was influenced by a lack of societal respect for tradespeople during that time, according to Eckels.

That lack of respect tends to dissolve when a plumber or electrician “is needed,” he said.

Another cost driver is the high price of materials, according to Eckels.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.