NAHB Now | Codes Voting Tool Saves Time and Money.. It Just Needs Voters
 

Photo courtesy of NAHB Now

When the International Code Council (ICC) debuted cdpACCESS, its online discussion and voting tool for proposed changes to the ICC family of building codes, it had high hopes that the tool would be a game changer.

With cdpACCESS, building and fire code officials and others authorized to vote can save money and time by voting from their desktops rather than traveling to week-long code hearings. This was supposed to allow cash-strapped towns and counties to be a larger part of the development of the codes they adopt.

It hasn’t yet worked out that way.

After hearings in the fall of 2015, 5,679 governmental member voting representatives from 1,416 eligible jurisdictions were validated to cast their votes online. But the highest number of votes cast for any single proposed code change was only 297 — a 5% participation rate — and the average number of votes cast for each proposed code change was only 168.

So while there are more eligible voters, they aren’t voting — not by a long shot. “This is a real problem,” said NAHB Construction, Codes and Standards committee chair Phillip Hoffman.

“Generally, building and code officials tend to support life safety and energy proposals that are cost effective, just like home builders do. Unfortunately, when so few get around to voting, it makes it easier to pack the list of eligible voters with folks who have a particular agenda, like fire sprinkler mandates or proposals that benefit certain product manufacturers.”

Overall, NAHB was 84% successful in advocating for the positions taken on 260 of the 1,330 total proposed code changes, and it was 88% successful in advocating its positions on 183 code changes that were identified as either “important,” “very important” or “critical” by our members.

Code Hearings, Round 2

Now, it’s on to the next series of votes: NAHB has taken positions on 624 of the 1,994 proposed changes to the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) and International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), supporting 119 and opposing 505.

NAHB submitted 25 energy code change proposals to make the IECC more practical. The proposed changes include reinstating equipment efficiency trade-offs, improving the usability of the new Energy Rating Index and reducing requirements that are well beyond NAHB’s cost-effectiveness criteria of a 10-year payback.

Many other proposals will have significant impacts on the housing industry if approved. Full Story Here!

 

 



  
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