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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 28, 2015 07:54 PM |
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| From: | Representative David M. Maloney, Sr. |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Co-sponsorship of Legislation to Require International Codes Council (ICC) Publish Pennsylvania Specific Code Manuals |
| Please find attached legislation that I plan to introduce in the near future to amend the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act (Act 45 of 1999) to require the Department of Labor & Industry to: 1) contract with the International Codes Council (ICC) to create and publish a set of code books that specifically represent the requirements of Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code (UCC); and 2) make the ICC Pennsylvania “specific” set of code books available online for the general public to view. It is important to note that the UCC is directly based on the ICC family of technical building codes. Every three years the UCC Review and Advisory Council reviews the latest set of updated triennial ICC codes and adopts the revisions that it deems should belong as part of the UCC. The Council adopted the 2009 ICC triennial codes in their entirety, and in 2012 it chose not to adopt any of the revisions in the 2012 triennial codes; thus, the technical standards of the UCC are the 2009 ICC triennial code requirements. The Council just completed its review of the 2015 ICC set of codes, and adopted 16 new code provisions from the 2015 codes. Code administrators/builders have been, and will continue to use the 2009 set of ICC code books, with some form of supplements to be added to include new requirements. In addition, the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act, in itself, has many exclusions/modifications that differ from the 2009 ICC code books. From a practical standpoint, persons wishing to interpret UCC standards do not have one consolidated set of manuals to find all requirements. Other states, such as Virginia, have contracted with the ICC to produce state-specific code books that reflect the particular changes/nuances of that state’s use of the ICC codes. My legislation would permit the Department of Labor & Industry to work with the ICC to produce code books that directly reflect the complete requirements of the UCC. It is my understanding that the creation of four commonly used codes in print (rough estimate) would be about a $20,000 fee charged by the ICC. In addition, my legislation would give the department the power to also contract with the ICC to put the PA-specific set of codes online so that they could be viewed (in “read-only” format) by the general public. It is my understanding that the ICC would assess a charge of $25,000 for 6 years of this service. My legislation would pay for these charges by allowing the department to direct some of the monies raised by the existing fee of $4 on each building permit to fund any potential contract with the ICC. The concept embodied in my legislation is supported by all stakeholders involved in the enforcement of the PA Construction Code Act, including the Pennsylvania Builders Association. |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB1543