Senate Approves Bill to Cut Building Code Mandate

Requirement could increase housing costs by $3,000

The Senate today (March 20) approved legislation to exempt Pennsylvania from a new building code requirement designed for coastal areas and earthquake-prone regions, according to Senator Don White, a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Senate Bill 437 would amend the PA Construction Code (Act 45 of 1999) by addressing a new mandate contained in the 2006 International Residential Code, which took affect on January 1, 2007. Under the mandate, all new residential construction is now required to have "anchor bolts" when the foundation and retaining walls are built, which could increase home building costs by as much as $3,000, according to Senator White.

Labor and Industry Committee, on which Senator White serves as a member, approved the bill last week. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

"The anchor bolt requirement makes sense for some areas, but not here in Pennsylvania," Senator White said. "There are many essential safeguards in our building code, but this certainly isn't one of them. It would place an unnecessary cost on construction that undoubtedly would end up being paid for by homebuyers."

If approved by the House and signed by the Governor, SB 437 would be the third revision to Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code (UCC) in two years and even more changes are needed, according to Senator White.

"As time passes, we are finding that the UCC is creating unnecessary and unwarranted problems for too many people," Senator White said. "As it currently stands, this set of codes places an onerous burden on people who are looking to make minor changes to their property. I believe we need to look at a comprehensive reform of the UCC."

According to the Pennsylvania Builders Association, the states of Indiana and Georgia have removed the anchor bolt mandate and North and South Carolina are currently going thru the process of removing it as well.

Engineers from the Concrete Foundation Association, the National Association of Home Builders, the Portland Cement Association, the National Concrete Masonry Association and the National Ready Mix Concrete Association are in agreement that these provisions are unnecessary and have jointly submitted a code change to remove these provisions from the next published edition of the IRC which will not be until 2009.