MODEL # 98-25
"CODE FOOTPRINT"
FOR CODE APPLICATION AND ENFORCEMENT
STATE OF KANSAS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Jurisdiction Statistics:

• Population: 3 million
• Size (square miles): 80,000
• Dollar Amount of Construction Per Year: $100 million
• % Construction:

Commercial- 10%; Residential- 10%; Rehab- 15%; Other- 65%

Regulatory Areas:

• Administration & Enforcement

PROBLEM:

Building Plans - Fire and Life Safety Information

Because of the complexity and volume of typical construction documents, issues such as fire and life safety were being overlooked or met insufficiently in both new and existing construction. In many buildings, it was difficult or impossible to obtain a reference guide of the building's safety features for officials that needed quick access to the information.

SOLUTION:

Customized Reference Documents

The Office of the Kansas State Fire Marshal developed a "code footprint"-- a multipurpose document keyed to a specific building that describes the building's fire and life safety features, as well as other pertinent data, without the extraneous information that appears in construction documents.

DESCRIPTION:

The Code Footprint provides fire protection and life safety information about a given structure to the architects, engineers, jurisdictional officials, plans reviewers, facility owners and operators, inspection personnel, and fire responders who need the information in a quick, concise format. It consists of a simple schematic drawing or floorplan of the structure in question, one floor per page. Information contained on the drawing includes floor area, room occupancies, exits, firewalls, active and passive fire protection, sprinklers, and building code information.

In addition to serving as a quick reference, the Code Footprint can also be used as a permanent record of a building's fire and life safety features. When modifications are made to the structure affecting these elements, the Code Footprint can be readily updated to reflect the changes. This is an efficient alternative to making complete edits to the original construction documents, and ensures that individuals have the latest fire and life safety information readily available. The Code Footprint also presents this information in a simple, standardized format that individuals from all regulatory departments can utilize effectively.

The submitting party has included a copy of a typical code footprint as well as a magazine article that discusses the Code Footprint Program and its goals in detail.

EVALUATION BY STREAMLINING COMMITTEES:

Advantages

• Increases productivity and reduces time, cost, and complexity;
• Great potential for computerization with GIS to make available to everyone;
• Long-term benefits;
• Increases in-house coordination and communication.

Limitations

• Need to ensure that the "footprint" is updated to reflect renovations;
• If computerized, the format must be standardized for all that use it.

The Streamlining Committees designated this program a streamlined model without modifications.

IMPLEMENTATION:

This program was implemented through administrative action of the Office of the Kansas State Fire Marshal. The submitting party states that implementation costs are relatively low, due to the low-tech approach to regulatory streamlining.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR ASSISTANCE IN CONSIDERING THE USE OF THIS MODEL, PLEASE CONTACT:

Rick Fay
Fire Protection Specialist
Kansas State Fire Marshal
700 SW Jackson, Suite 600
Topeka, KS 66603
Phone: (785) 296-3401
FAX: (785) 296-0151

Or NCSBCS Staff:

Carolyn Fitch
505 Huntmar Park Drive, Suite 210
Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: (703) 467-2048
Fax: (703) 481-3596
Email: cfitch@ncsbcs.org