Attachment D
Enhancing Public Safety and The States’ Role in the Global Economy Through Uniform Construction Codes and Standards
Issues Before the Governors and Legislatures
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The Importance of Uniform Construction Codes to the States’ Role in the New Economy |
Under two recent NGA reports on the New Economy ("Governance in the New Economy" and "State Strategies for the New Economy"), the governors have been reviewing the forces affecting their states’ role in the global economy and considering actions they should take to sustain economic growth. Towards that end, the NGA report on "State Strategies for the New Economy" identifies policies and programs that include four approaches directly relevant to the building codes and standards that their state and communities adopt and enforce:
1. Address the quality of life concerns to attract new businesses and workers (e.g. housing, schools, and infrastructure)
2. Support entrepreneurs by streamlining business regulations, providing timely decisions, and assisting firms in their search for venture capital
3. Develop more uniform regulatory and tax systems to reduce complexity, eliminate market distortions, and better protect consumers
4. Reengineer government to deliver services more efficiently using technology, privatization, and partnerships with the private sector
The above four approaches are relevant to codes and standards in a number of ways. Building codes and standards help elected officials fulfill two important basic functions of government: protecting the public’s health and life safety; and enhancing economic development both within the state and, in the new economy, enhancing the state’s role in the global economy.
Having seen such things as the loss of life in Florida caused by Hurricane Andrew, most Americans readily understand the life safety aspect of building regulations. The need to protect the public from substandard housing, poor sanitation, unnecessary risk of fire or loss of life from natural (or man-made) disasters, has helped elected officials see the wisdom of
adopting and enforcing model building and fire safety codes. Life safety also is enhanced where states and localities have adopted the same codes and standards, thus reducing the complexity and confusion to the construction industry caused by trying to comply with divergent construction provisions within the same state.Less easily understood, however, has been the significant positive impact that uniform model codes and standards and efficient codes administration has on the economic viability of a state and its localities. All four of the above recommended NGA policies for states to succeed in the new economy relate directly to how well a state regulates construction within its borders. A look at the past three decades explains how.
The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that over 12% of our annual gross domestic product is generated by the nation’s construction and renovation of buildings, and nearly half of our national wealth is tied up in buildings constructed and used by the public and private sectors. But beyond the
number of jobs and national wealth that the construction industry represents, effective and efficient building codes and codes enforcement has had a major impact on the economic viability of states and their localities.Through the mid-1960’s, only four states had uniform, statewide building codes. Noticing the wide variety of social and
economic problems that codes effectively address, 20 states in the early 1970’s adopted statewide building regulatory programs with varying degrees of local control. Some states provided localities the right to freely amend the minimum state code. Other states, like New Jersey and Virginia, adopted model codes that precluded local amendments. Most recently, states like New Jersey and Maryland are improving the economic revitalization of previously depressed portions of their states through the statewide application of uniform building rehabilitation codes (the New Jersey Building Rehabilitation Code and Maryland’s "Smart Code" initiative).Effective statewide codes are critical to state economic development. The 1970’s and ‘80’s, are replete with cases where state economic growth was curtailed as in Massachusetts, for example, where the code enforcement system contributed to a lack of affordable housing, which kept high-tech firms from locating in that state. During that same time period, effective uniform statewide code systems in Kentucky and South Carolina helped those states beat out
their neighbors in the competition to locate major foreign automobile production facilities in their states.Codes and codes enforcement can either facilitate or restrict the introduction and use of safe, durable, and innovative building products, technologies, and processes. In that regard, codes and codes enforcement also can either enable or make it virtually impossible for building products manufacturers to aggregate their markets, which could reduce the cost of their products through volume production. Market aggregation thus enables product manufacturers to more readily compete in the international marketplace. Aggregation has been especially successful where states and their localities have adopted the same model building codes with few (if any) technical amendments.
Taken together, a uniform statewide building code administered at the local level meets the above four NGA-recommended policies for succeeding in the new economy by providing a coordinated approach toward:
• addressing quality of life concerns
• attracting and retaining new and existing businesses
• supporting uniform regulatory systems
• facilitating more efficient uses of technology
Over the past four years, in response to the need for states to restructure their regulatory systems to effectively participate in the new economy, legislators in several states have either held hearings or adopted legislation establishing uniform statewide building regulatory systems. In the mid-1990’s, Florida adopted legislation establishing a single statewide code and Missouri held several public hearings on the need for statewide uniformity.
In 1999, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania became the 33rd state to adopt and sign into law legislation establishing a uniform statewide building regulatory system. A state commission to study the benefits of such a statewide program is currently working in Illinois as well.
Listed in the following tables are the states that currently have different types of mandatory statewide building regulatory programs:
States With Mandatory Statewide Building Codes
Map of Building Code Influence as of January 2001
If your state is not among them and you would like more information on such programs, additional information regarding the benefits of statewide building codes and copies of sample state enabling legislation is available by contacting NCSBCS Technical Services Center staff member Carolyn Fitch at (703) 437-0100.