ICC Submits Recommendations for Federal Strategies to Encourage State and Local Adoption of Disaster-Resistant Building Standards

The International Code Council (ICC) recently submitted its recommendations for inclusion in the Applied Technology Council’s ATC-117-1 Project Report.

In 2012, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded ATC a five-year task order contract to provide technical guidance and support to reduce the disastrous impacts of earthquakes and other hazards. In turn, ATC initiated and supervised a building code adoption and enforcement strategy process called the Mitigation Framework Leadership Group (MitFLG). ATC delivered the ATC-117-1 Project Report to FEMA in March.

Damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 was the driving force behind ATC-117-1. President Obama established the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force to develop a rebuilding strategy to serve as a model for communities across the nation. In this effort the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) developed a rebuilding strategy with 69 policy recommendations, including one that called for states and local jurisdictions to adopt and enforce the most current versions of the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Residential Code (IRC). Following this recommendation, FEMA engaged ATC to supervise the work resulting in the ATC-117-1 Project Report.

“In putting together our team to help develop this strategy, literally the first organization to make our list was the International Code Council,” said FEMA Senior Geophysicist Michael Mahoney. “FEMA has worked with the ICC since its inception and have found them to be the only organization capable of representing all of our nation’s building codes as well as the code enforcement community. We are grateful for ICC’s significant involvement in the development of this strategy.”

The ATC-117-1 Project Report is intended to provide a record of the steps that were performed by the Project Team and the development of the final 15 recommendations in the report entitled, Strategies to Encourage State and Local Adoption of Disaster-Resistant Codes and Standards to Improve Resiliency. Information in ATC-117-1 will be further used to develop a more comprehensive report that will include other issues being investigated by MitFLG.

“ATC invited ICC to work with their technical committee to develop these strategies because they recognized ICC as the leading expert on formulating and disseminating building codes, getting them adopted and working with jurisdictions,” said ICC Senior Vice President of Government Relations Sara Yerkes. “ATC put together several task groups, which included ICC staff. We participated in workgroups and webinars to develop strategies to encourage state and local jurisdictions to adopt the most recent disaster resistance building codes.”

In addition to ICC and the National Fire Protection Association, the MitFLG workgroups included eight federal agencies, two state representatives and representatives from the White House. Among the 70 stakeholders attending the webinars were six federal agencies, 20 industry and consulting organizations, building code developers, code adopters and enforcers, designers, building contractors, material and product suppliers, financiers, insurers and interested parties.

To see the list of final recommendations, go to http://bsj.iccsafe.org/ATC-117-1 Project Report_recommendations.docx.

About us: The International Code Council is a member-focused association. It is dedicated to developing model codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures. Most U.S. communities and many global markets choose the International Codes.