Building Code Board of Appeals Minutes 1997

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Chairman Schurman - Is there any further discussion. Being none we will address the next item on the agenda. 1997 Uniform Building Code, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Tom Talboom - Staff has some additional information for the board. We have provided some handouts which outline some of the major changes to the codes. These will be made available to any interested parties. I feel that the main portion of the changes will be in the Building Code One of the major revisions which is not on this list is the fee table. This table shows approximately a 12% increase in the permit fees over the 1994 UBC table. At this time the City has not adopted the 1994 UBC table I do believe that we have adopted about one half of the fee increase from the 1994 fee table We would be looking at adopting the fee table from the 1994 UBC, or adopting the 1997 UBC fee table We do have some items which have been brought up by both contractors and homeowners. The first is the minimum 7' 6" ceiling height for habitable area. This has presented some problems with basements which were not finished during construction. We have received requests to have this requirement lowered for basement areas. The building department would support lowering this requirement to 7' Chairman Schurman-I personally feel that when someone buys a house the ceiling height is established. If they then try to get a permit, and cannot, because of the ceiling height, they will finish the basement without the permit. I think by lowering the requirement you then encourage people to get permits and have the required inspections done. Tom Talboom- I would agree with that. At the time of construction most basement are not considered habitable space, so we have difficulty enforcing minimum ceiling height requirements If we are going to look at amending section 310 6 1, we would want to add some verbiage which would require minimum height at initial construction. We would then eliminate the problem for future basement finishes. Member Schlott-It would appear that there is already some latitude with regard to the ceiling height. As long as 2/3 of the habitable area meets the requirement you would be in compliance of the code. I don't think that we want to remove that in lowering the minimums. Tom Talboom-The intention is for existing buildings. I feel that a new house should be constructed to the new code requirements. One of the other requirements that becomes a hardship for finishing a basement is that for natural light and ventilation. The code presently requires 10% of the floor area for natural light and ventilation i.e. window area. When we adopted the 94 UBC we reduced that to 7% of the floor area. It has been brought to our attention that some jurisdiction allow 5% Some have eliminated the requirement all together, which I feel is extreme. 3