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Affordability a Rallying Call for Builders in Codes Process
Their detail and complexity are enough to make most builders’ eyes glaze over, yet the profound effects of codes on the building process and housing affordability make it a bad mistake for builders to ignore them.
Members of the NAHB Construction Codes and Standards Committee and staff experts will be working intently on behalf of housing concerns in the next 18-month cycle of drafts, revisions, comments and hearings in the International Code Council's (ICC) 2006-2007 Code Development Cycle.
Interest groups across the country have been drafting their amendments, and NAHB staff members will soon be looking for builder volunteers who can provide their insights on proposed code changes and their effect on safety, the building process and housing affordability.
The International Code Council develops model codes for residential building, commercial building, electrical, mechanical, energy efficiency and other categories that states and localities either adopt in their entirety or revise based on geography, local preferences or other factors.
The ICC publishes a new edition of the codes every three years, but they are amended every 18 months, ensuring that someone, somewhere is working on a code change at any given time.
Under the process, a national trade association, home builder association, code official, manufacturer or other interest group submits a proposal to change the code. The proposal can be as simple as an editorial clarification of a particular section that is difficult to interpret, or as far reaching as a change in how homes are framed, which can have a significant impact on design and materials.
NAHB is currently preparing draft proposals for the Construction, Codes and Standards Provision Oversight Groups, or POGs, to review. The POGs will return comments to NAHB, and then the package will be sent to the ICC by March 24. In a typical cycle, NAHB will submit between 40 and 60 proposals.
The ICC is likely to end up receiving about 2,000 proposed code changes. As soon as those proposed amendments are published in mid-July, NAHB will begin its evaluation so that it can recommend positions on them.
In August, the POGs will descend on the association’s office in Washington for several days of wrangling over the proposals.
“You’re shoulder to shoulder in all the conference rooms with papers and code books stacked high on the table,” said Jeff Inks, NAHB assistant staff vice president for codes and standards. Staff and volunteers work together to prepare testimony on as many as 700 specific changes.
In late September, ICC will convene in Florida for 10 days of hearings on each proposed amendment; 12-14 hours of testimony each day is typical.
Frank Thompson of Sweetwater Builders near Pittsburgh has been a member of NAHB’s codes committee since the association began work on the first draft of the International Residential Code in 1997. The code work requires long hours poring over complex statistics and arguments, but the end result is well worth the effort, he said.
“You can really make a difference. What occurs at the hearings has an impact on a vast number of our members.” Thompson said. “And it’s not just what makes sense for NAHB, but for the industry to continue to be able to offer affordable housing. If we’re not out there trying to keep housing affordable, there are many other interest groups that will run us right over, so it’s important that we have that presence. I often think we are the only ones out there considering affordability.”
In December, the ICC will send out another telephone-book-sized tome that includes stakeholder comments on the actions on proposed changes that were taken at the public hearings. NAHB members and staff will spend another few weeks preparing comments for submission in late January 2007. The ICC will publish the final comment book in April as the NAHB staff prepares to testify at a final round of code hearings in May.
The ultimate goal, Inks says, is to make sure that the most onerous and least cost-effective changes never see the light of day in a published code book.
Among those who don’t necessarily consider the impact of their proposals on home buyers are manufacturers who have products they would like to see required in the code, safety experts who are never short on ideas, and trade associations advocating changes primarily aimed at benefiting their members. “As builders, we have to concern ourselves with all of the factors that go into a home,” said Chip Dence, of East End Builders in Victoria, Texas and a longtime committee leader. “Consumers don’t historically participate in the code change process, so builders have to be their advocates. We have to be vigilant, and that’s what we do.”
Members who have additional proposals that they would like to see NAHB bring to the table or who would like to help in the review process, should e-mail Larry Brown at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8565.
But they will need to be patient, Thompson said. “You need to realize that codes don’t happen overnight, that they are evolving documents. If you have problems, it’s worthwhile to participate, but what we may propose won’t get into the books until 2009.”
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