NAHB Sees Success in Current Code Development Cycle

Thanks in large part to NAHB members and their tireless efforts to educate codes officials, none of the 26 high-priority code change proposals opposed by NAHB passed the first stage of International Code Council (ICC) I-Code development. The ICC recently held its 2019 Group B Committee Action Hearings in Albuquerque, N.M. on proposed changes to the Group B codes for the 2021 edition of the I-codes. Most importantly, Group B includes the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and International Residential Code (IRC). For example, among the 26 proposed changes that NAHB opposed and deemed a top priority, one included a proposal to require an electric vehicle-ready parking space, with charging infrastructure, on all new single-family homes. The ICC committees considered nearly 1,400 code change proposals. Overall, the committees supported NAHB's position on 84% of the proposals where a position was taken. Other major wins included:

• Updating the residential footing table where many of the current provisions require oversizing the footers.
• Defeating a proposal that would consider a habitable attic to be a story, subsequently pushing many townhomes out of the residential code.

ICC is accepting public comments on the committee hearing results through July 24. NAHB plans to file at least 36 comments on proposals with unfavorable results. All submitted public comments will be heard at the public comment hearings in October. After the hearings, there will be an online vote open to all ICC governmental voters in November. NAHB will be asking members to participate in the One & Done campaign to encourage favorable codes voting results. The campaign urges each member to share NAHB's positions on code changes with at least one code official during a code development cycle. For more information on building codes or the One & Done campaign, please contact Craig Drumheller.