Code Council’s Online Governmental Consensus Vote Sees Significant Increase in Participation

Code Changes Approved For Tiny Homes, Lower GPW Refrigerants, and Updated Seismic and Residential Energy Standards

In order to accommodate a significant increase in participation, the International Code Council’s 2016 Online Governmental Consensus Vote (OGCV) for the Group B International Codes was extended an extra week and concluded on Nov. 27. The demand resulted in more than 162,000 votes cast by eligible ICC Voting Members during the three-week period.

There were a total of 577 code change proposals considered in the OGCV, with the maximum number of votes cast on a single proposal 780 and the minimum number of votes 158. The 2016 OGCV resulted in significant increases in participation over the past two code development cycles when it debuted with ICC’s cloud-based system of code development cdpACCESS.

“The total number of votes included 24,899 in a single day,” explained ICC Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims, CBO. “For comparison purposes, the single day vote count exceeds the total OGCV vote count of 23,905 in 2014 and is over 50% of the total votes cast in 2015. This increase is clearly a positive step forward for the building safety and fire prevention industry which we believe will continue in future code cycles.”

ICC Voting Members approved proposed change RB 168 to the International Residential Code (IRC) which made suggestions to reduce the scale of tiny housing while maintaining the health and safety regulation of the buildings in order to protect the occupants. Also approved were refrigerants with reduced global warming potential (GWP) in the International Fire Code. ANSI/RESNET/ICC 301 Standard for the Calculation and Labeling of the Energy Performance of Low-Rise Residential Buildings and ASCE/SEI 7 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures were approved as updated standards in the I-Codes.

The preliminary OGCV results are available by clicking here. The results are preliminary as the audited process requires certification by the Validation Committee and ultimately confirmation by the ICC Board of Directors.

About the International Code Council

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.