International Code Council Code Development Public Hearings
2009-2012 Code Development Cycle
Baltimore, MD
Update: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Filed by: Ron Burton
Vice President – Codes, Standards & Regulatory Affairs
BOMA International
My apologies for the delay in providing this update on yesterday’s ICC hearings. Day 4 was extremely busy and did not conclude until well into the evening hours with many proposals before the IBC Structural Code Development Committee of concern to BOMA. The Structural committee hearings were completed late in the afternoon and hearings on energy issues kicked off yesterday as well.
The Structural committee completed action on slightly less than 300 code change proposals over 4 days of hearings stretching from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm each day. Dave Tyree, BOMA’s Director of Codes & Standards, chaired the committee and did an outstanding job of guiding the committee through its heavy workload.
A number of code change proposals with critical impacts to BOMA members were on the agenda on Tuesday. Here’s a summary of the most critical proposals debated today.
- Fire Code committee debated several proposals to add provisions to deal with fire hazard from hand sanitizer gel in hospitals and other medical occupancies including medical office buildings.
- BOMA opposed stringent structural load requirements for all interior partition walls installed in office remodels - proposal disapproved.
- BOMA unsuccessful in getting disapproval of unnecessary new requirements for structural load design for rooftop gardens.
- Proposal to require unnecessarily stringent roofing underlayment attachment in high wind areas disapproved by Structural committee.
- Wind resistant construction requirements for rooftop landscape systems were disapproved by Structural committee - BOMA & GSA opposed.
- Prohibition of aggregate (gravel) on built up roof systems on new & existing buildings over 150 ft high disapproved - BOMA led opposition.
- BOMA opposed code change to add placards on existing buildings with wood I-joists and trusses - Structural committee agreed and disapproved.
- Proposal to mandate more stringent structural load requirements for fire rated walls disapproved by Structural committee.
- BOMA supported adding 4 years to time of completion for alteration projects - Structural committee agreed and approved the change.
- Structural committee disapproved requirement for very stringent blast resistant stair & elevator shaft walls - BOMA led opposition
- BOMA's Dir. of Codes/Stds Dave Tyree chaired the IBC structural committee and did great job guiding the work on 250+ proposals over 4 days.
- BOMA positions were sustained on the majority of critical code change proposals on the IBC structural committee agenda.
- Yesterday was day 4 of the ICC hearings in Baltimore - Building Code structural committee completed its work & Energy Code hearings began.
Debate on energy issues also began today with hearings on the Residential Code energy chapters. Tomorrow, the International Energy Conservation Code hearings begin with many of the same proposals that were debated yesterday in the Residential Code committee hearings, but also including commercial energy efficiency proposals critical to the interests of BOMA members.
Don’t forget to check out my daily tweets on Twitter. You can access my tweets through the Twitter link on the BOMA web site www.boma.org. Also get my daily summaries on BOMA’s Facebook page at the close of each day’s debates. You can also tune into the live webcast of the ICC hearings at the following web site: http://bit.ly/J6huL .