13-15 - Local Amendments to the Building Code, Fire Code and Plumbing Code

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Item Nos. 13-15 TO: Mayor & City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Carla Easton, PE, City Engineer SUBJECT: BUILDING CODE UPDATES DATE: October 12, 2020 BACKGROUND: In 2017, the city adopted the 2015 International Building Code (IBC), Residential Code (IRC), Existing Building Code (IEBC), Fire Code (IFC), Plumbing Code (IPC), Fuel Gas Code and the 2014 National Electrical Code (NEC), along with local amendments as recommended by the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Some of the local amendments added regulations to the base code in order to address certain life safety concerns for emergency response times of a smaller fire department. Other amendments made the code more regionally appropriate or consistent. In 2019, the Chamber of Commerce developed an educational series for local contractors and businesses to learn about building and fire codes. Many local contractors, builders, realtors, and business professionals attended the meeting, and during the question and answer session, it was asked if it would be possible to make the Code more appropriate for Paris. Direction was given to staff to put together a committee to review the building and fire codes and make recommendations to the city council regarding amendments. STATUS OF ISSUE: City staff, with the help of Mark Lacey, assembled a seven member committee to include a representative from each of the following disciplines: architect, structural engineer, fire suppression engineer, master electrician, master plumber, builder and developer. An introductory meeting with the committee and staff was held on November 7th, and each were given a copy of the city code amendments for review. A citizens forum was held on November 14th in the council chambers, where the committee received public comment regarding building code concerns. Attached are notes from the open forum. A repeated concern was regarding consistent enforcement, and very few specific code references were provided in the public hearing. On November 21St, the committee met to review and discuss specific sections of the code that they felt could or should be revised, and based on feedback at that meeting, staff developed a list of 9 specific code modifications for the committee to review. Another meeting was held on December