BOMA Succeeds at ICC Hearings

BOMA International’s codes team successfully represented the interests of BOMA members during final action hearings to determine the content of the 2015 editions of eight of the International Code Council’s (ICC) sixteen codes. The hearings, held in Atlantic City, N.J. earlier this month, saw more than 800 code change proposals debated and balloted by ICC voting members. Working in concert with other real estate and construction groups, BOMA’s team once again preserved safe, achievable and cost-effective codes against the growing influence of powerful product manufacturers and special interest industry groups.

BOMA and its allies were successful in keeping unnecessary and extremely costly mandates on new and existing buildings out of the ICC codes. Victories included the defeat of:

• Retro-commissioning for energy and mechanical systems in existing buildings every five years
• Solar-ready provisions, including dedicated roof space, for all buildings
• Increased insulation levels for wall, floor, roof and windows
• Whole building air barrier testing
• Auto shut-off controls on 50 percent of electrical receptacles
• Inspection of existing building energy code compliance triggered by any permit application
• Renewal of building certificates of occupancy every five years
• Retroactive sprinkler system installation for all business occupancies over three stories and all existing hotels and motels
• Mold inspection and remediation of all existing buildings
• Radon abatement system installation triggered by renovation permits

BOMA also secured approval of proposals to keep prohibitively costly firefighter air breathing replenishment systems and building energy/mechanical system commissioning out of the body of the ICC codes. A full report on the results of the ICC hearings will be available on the BOMA website and in the next issue of BOMA Magazine.