Consideration and Adoption of Ordinance No. 2013-12:  An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Flagstaff, Arizona, adopting the "2012 International Family of Codes, and the 2013 Amendments to City Code, Title 4, Building Regulations, and the ICC A117.1 Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities Standard, 2009 Edition" by reference and fixing the effective date thereof; repealing all sections of said code in conflict with this ordinance; preserving rights and duties that have already matured and proceedings that have already begun thereunder and providing penalties for the violation thereof.

Adoption of Ordinance No. 2013-12 will incorporate the 2012 International Family of Codes, 2009 Addition, the Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities Standard, and the 2013 Building Code Amendments to the Flagstaff City Code, Title 4, Building Regulations into the Flagstaff City Code. Title 4 includes the following amendments to the Energy Code as recommended by Council:

1) Section R402.2.1, Requiring R-49 insulation in attic but only R-30 above exterior walls
2) Section R402.4.1.2, Deleting blower door test
3) Section R403.5.1, Deleting whole house ventilation system and fan efficiency
4) Section C101.2 & R101.2, Adding except for Group 2 (multi-family) to allow either residential or commercial requirements.

Adoption of an amendment eliminating the requirement for waterless urinals and replacing them with a urinal having a maximum 1 pint flush will reduce costs.

There will be some increased costs due to some of the changes in the building codes. For the energy code, a 30% increase in energy efficiency over the 2006 energy code will incorporate numerous changes.

Attached are four studies: U.S. Department of Energy, Coconino County, Salt Lake City, and National Association of Home Builders

While the assumptions in the studies are different it may still be useful to compare them. The cost increase from the 2006 Energy Code to the 2012 Energy Code, adjusted to reflect the four proposed deletions in the draft City Ordinance, range from $1585 to $3869. The NAHB national average is as high as $6404. Two studies show a positive cash flow taking place after two years. In two studies the simple payback ranges from 6.4 years to 8.1 years. The NAHB national average was 11.3 years. See attached Table 1 for more details.

11. Effective governance

By Adopting the 2012 International Codes and the proposed 2013 amendments to the City Code, Title 4, the life safety of buildings will be retained along with reduced energy consumption in residential and commenrcial buildings. The City will also take advantage of new technical inovations and the cities ISO rating will change remain level.

1) Council could adopt all the proposed 2012 Codes as written and the 2013 Building Code Amendments as amended.
2) Council could elect to adopt the proposed 20I2 Building Codes, and adopt the 2009 Energy Code, and the amended 2013 Building Code Amendments.
3) Council could elect to adopt the 2012 Building Codes, adopt 2012 Energy Code but amend to the 2006 or 2009 Energy Code, and adopt the amended 2013 Building Code Amendments.
4) If no updating of the Codes were to occur by October  of 2013, the ISO would reaise the insurance rating to a classification 9 causing an increase in insurance rates.

The Building Safety Program is responsible for reviewing and adopting building codes in consideration of current life safety issues and building industry standards. Since April 13, 1937, the City of Flagstaff has been reviewing and adopting various building, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, gas and fire code to better serve the community.The last major code review and adoption was the 2006 Edition of the International Codes, by Ordinance 2007-47, on January 18, 2008. In 2011, the council approved going to a 6 year code cycle instead of a 3 year cycle.

By adopting the 2012 codes, there will be 2 cycles of code changes that will be incorporated in the codes. In the Energy Code, Chapter 4 is the residential requirements and Chapter 5 is the commercial requirements. Most of the sections are prescriptive requirements but there are some mandatory requirements also. There is also Section R405 which allows for a performance-based compliance based on simulated energy performance which shows that the proposed design will have an annual energy cost that is less than or equal to the annual energy cost of the standard reference design. In both sections, there are certain “mandatory” requirements that are required for both the prescriptive and performance methods of compliance. This will allow a builder to be innovative to find other methods to meet the energy saving goals.

There will be a cost of approximately $3,500 for new code books and $2,000 for training of the plans examiners and inspectors.

By adopting the 2012 codes, the City’s ISO rating will remain at a Class 3 rating which will keep local insurance rates from increasing. Also, by constructing new residential and commercial projects to the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code, the community is assuring that the new structures being added to the inventory will save on energy, thus enhancing a viable sustainable future.

Public code forums were held from February 2012 to January 2013 with a suspension from May 2012 to October 2012 due to work load. Information and invites were sent to NABA, F3, local architects and engineers, NAGBC, local contractors and designers plus individuals who asked to be placed on the email list, the Sustainability Commission and on May 8, staff will be meeting with the Chamber of Commerce.  Coconino county will be considering adopting the 2012 Codes later this year.