Code Commotion: Complaints delay new regulations for builders

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2012 has come, but homebuilders in Mecklenburg County and elsewhere in the state are still living in 2011 – at least as far as building codes are concerned.

Opposition to the new codes is preventing them from being rolled out while the General Assembly waits to review the complaints.

For now, the 2012 books are nowhere to be found in North Carolina. And, in the meantime, the waiting game is frustrating industry officials and creating uncertainty.

“They’re supposed to be available at several locations, but I haven’t found them anywhere,” said Zeke Acosta, owner of Charlotte-based Acosta Heating and Cooling and a member of the Mecklenburg County Building Development Commission. “We are facing some delays.”

“Some delays” may be putting it mildly. Typically, builders and contractors have the new codebooks by December or January. But complaints about the electrical codes have put the books in limbo.

In June, North Carolina officials announced that there were challenges to the codes that were supposed to take effect this past Sunday. But the General Assembly received 10 letters of objection regarding the new 2011 N.C. electrical code. Each was filed with the North Carolina Rule Review Commission this past summer.

The General Assembly has not disclosed what the complaints are over, but the number reached a threshold that requires the legislature to address the concerns in the 2012 session. And that means further delays for the implementation of some of the new codes.

Jim Bartl, Mecklenburg County’s director of code enforcement, said his office has all of the 2012 code books except for those involving residential, energy and electrical codes.

“Those have been delayed by the International Building Council and the North Carolina General Assembly,” he said.

All North Carolina code books are based on standards created by the International Code Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that was started in 1994 and whose stated mission is to help in the construction of safe and affordable buildings through the development of codes.

Last year, Mecklenburg County officials said the 2011 code would remain in effect until March 1.

“That’s the date we had heard,” Acosta said. “But at the most recent BDC meeting we were told something else.”

Code books will not be ready by March 1, so a new date of June 1 was announced Dec. 15.

“The (North Carolina) Building Code Council initiated a transition period from Sept. 1, 2011, to March 1, 2012,” Bartl said. “Initially, this was going to be a transition period from Jan. 1 to March 1, but that wasn’t going to work.”

Some of the rules and regulations are being updated for the first time since 2009, while others are being updated for the first time since the 1990s.

“It is also important to note that the 2012 North Carolina residential code will include residential requirements for electrical, mechanical and plumbing trade installations,” Bartl said. “Previous residential codes referenced the individual electrical, mechanical and plumbing codes.”

Adding rules to the residential code makes the books larger and the regulations a little more complicated, he added.

The ongoing delays have had Acosta wondering about which codes would apply for which projects, such as those awaiting permit approval and those already permitted. But Bartl said anyone who gets a permit on or before June 1 will fall under existing codes: the 2009 residential code, the 2009 mechanical code, the 2009 plumbing code and the 2008 electrical code. Projects permitted after that will fall under the 2012 codes, he said.

Bartl said he sympathized with builders who were hoping to get their new, expanded codebooks sooner. And the delays are not just causing issues for contractors and builders, but also for county staff, he said.

“People want to know what will be in the new codes,” he said. “The two-month window in not having access to the codes was a problem for customers, but also for us at the county. You can train based on stuff that is posted on the Web, but it is difficult to train effectively without the codes in hand.”

As to the discussion over the complaints filed with the legislature, a hearing date has not been scheduled for the 2012 legislative session. Bartl refused to speculate on the nature of the complaints about the electrical code.

“We will continue using the 2008 edition of the electrical code,” he said, “and we do not anticipate a switch to the 2012 N.C. Electrical Code until summer 2012, if even at that time.”

BAUGHMAN can be reached at [email protected].