We've told you before about the building codes mess in Pennsylvania.
In short: Changes to the building code update process, made by the state legislature and Gov. Corbett in 2011 -- at the behest of the home building industry -- are preventing updates to building codes.
This means that cost-effective industry best practices are being rejected at the expense of health, safety and energy efficiency.
Early next week, the Senate Labor and Industry Committee is expected to vote on a bill that attempts to fix this broken codes process.
Sen. Charles McIlhinney's bill would streamline the process by restoring Pennsylvania to a system where updated codes are adopted unless a two-thirds majority of the Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council (RAC) votes them out (referred to as the "opt-out" process).
This would allow for hundreds of commonsense, often simply semantic, code changes to take effect, while allowing for substantive analysis on proposed changes that merit debate.
It would go a long way toward addressing the dysfunction and delay in the current code process.
BUT, amendments are very likely to be introduced that would gut the bill of its core function.
Amendments that have been widely shared with stakeholders remove McIlhinney's key "opt-out" provision.
If similar amendments are introduced early next week, the watered down bill would fail to address the fundamental flaw of the current code process and Act 1 -- the requirement that the RAC reach two-thirds consensus on hundreds of proposed code changes.
The amended bill would amount to tinkering around the edges, while the safety and welfare of Pennsylvanians remains at risk because of out-of-date building codes.
Take action!
Use PennFuture's action alert and tell the Senate to stand up for the safety of Pennsylvanians, not the interests of home builders -- and pass SB 1023 unamended.
Andrew Sharp is PennFuture's director of outreach and is based in our Philadelphia office.
