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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA REPORT 1995 1206 CC REG ITEM 09ACITY OF MOORPARK AGENDA REPORT TO: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council. FROM: Jim MacDonald, Building Inspectf�4 DATE: November 16, 1995 (CC Meeting of Dec 6, 1995) 1TE Mop,-,_. . C of _ _ ___ - — SUBJECT: Consider second reading of Ordinance No. 210 to adopt and amend the California Building Standards Code as provided in the ordinance. Introduction The State of California Health and Safety Code requires all jurisdictions to enforce the most recent editions of various building standards. Although the State requires the enforcement of certain standards, it allows the City to amend these standards to address local concerns. The State does, however, limit the City's ability to amend the prescribed building standards to amendments that are reasonably necessary for reasons relating to local climate, geology and topography. The California Building Standards Code must be adopted by January 1, 1996. (Health and Safety Code Section § 18941.5). If the City fails to adopt the state mandated Standards by this date, the Standards will automatically go into affect statewide. Tile City will have forfeited any opportunity to adopt local amendments without an urgency ordinance. (Health and Safety Code Section § 18941.5 and 1995 California Building Standards Code Section 101. 11.2) The codes are as follows: Uniform Building Code, 1994 Edition, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Uniform Plumbing Code, 1994 Edition Uniform Mechanical Code, 1994 Edition National Electrical Code, 1993 Edition Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings 1994 Edition Uniform Housing Code 1994 Edition Uniform Administrative Code 1994 Edition Uniform Code for Building Conservation, 1994 Edition Attachment #1 is the draft ordinance adopting these codes and is presented for the Council's consideration. Discussion Proposed adoption and subsequent Amendments to the mandated codes fall into three categories, Building Standards, Administrative and Post Regulatory (for existing buildings). The various codes are written by several different organizations and as such, each has a different set of administrative provisions. Due to the lack of consistency, it is proposed that the administrative provisions of the various codes be removed. The Uniform Administrative Code should be adopted in their place to provide a consistent set of administrative provisions for all building codes. Proposed amendments to the building standards A. Uniform Building Code: 1. Additional requirements for grading, geology and foundations are necessary because the City is partially a hillside community where expansive soils are present. Based on investigations after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The following amendments are proposed: Allowable shear values for plywood, gypsum and stucco shear walls are reduced. (This will mean that the shear strength must be increased through the use of other materials or engineering design.) The use of stucco and gypsum shear walls on the ground floor of any multi -story building and self furring lath for all stucco shear walls shall be eliminated. 3 x sill plates shall be required for all shear walls with design shear exceeding 3W lbs. d. The use of rotation for the distribution shear forces shall be limited. 2 B. Uniform Plumbing Code: A floor drain shall be installed in bathrooms adjacent to semi- public swimming pools such as recreation centers. C. Uniform Mechanical Code: None. D. National Electric Code: None. Proposed Amendments to the Adnnistrative provisions A. Uniform Administrative Code: The Fee schedule has been removed from the code and is to be adopted by resolution instead of ordinance. This is being done for convenience because the adoption of a resolution is less cumbersome than the adoption of an ordinance. Fees are reviewed more often than codes and this will allow the fees to be revised without rewriting codes. 2. Clarification has been incorporated to assure that contract service providers are protected by the same immunity laws as public employees. Post Regulatory Codes A. Uniform Housing Code: Once building codes are adopted there remains a need to adopt a code to assure that housing is maintained in a safe manner. If the city wishes to continue to require the correction of unsafe housing conditions then the first step will be to declare that certain conditions are in violation of the City's Codes, as adopted. It is often not practical to declare a building in violation of the Building, Plumbing, Mechanical or Electrical Codes because almost all buildings will have been built before the adoption of the most recent codes and could, technically, be declared in violation. The solution is to provide a single document which contains more general language defining unsafe conditions. The Uniform Housing Code is the document which has been created for this purpose. 3 B. Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings: The adoption of the Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings is necessary due to the age and condition of various buildings in the City of Moorpark. This Code provides a system that the Building Official can use for the abatement and demolition of dangerous buildings. It also provides a method of cost recovery when the city incurs the debt of abatement. C. Uniform Code for Building Conservation: The adoption of the Uniform Code for Building Conservation provides a guideline in code format which will give a community a means to preserve its existing buildings while achieving appropriate levels of safety. Code adoption process Health and Safety Code Section § 18941.5 requires the California Building Standards Code to be enforced 180 days after the date of publication (July 1, 1995). Government Code Section § 6066 requires that a public hearing be held to adopt the revised building codes. Prior to the public hearing, the adoption ordinance must have a first reading and then be noticed two times, five days apart, in a newspaper of general circulation. If the Council adopts the revised building codes as presented, the amendments made by the City of Moorpark will go into effect 30 days after the date of adoption. The California Building Standards Code will automatically go into effect on January 1, 1996. Codes available for review Pursuant to state law, the codes being considered for adoption and amendment are available for public review in the Office of the City Clerk, located at 799 Moorpark Ave, Moorpark California, 93021. Fiscal impact The cost to construct a 3500 square foot single family home is approximately $250,000.00. The construction cost pursuant to the above revised and amended building codes is estimated to increase one to three percent, or $2500.00 to $7500.00. It should also be noted that the two current developers in Moorpark, (California Community Builders and Warmington Homes) have voluntarily decided to construct to these codes since September, 1995 and have therefore already been impacted by the increased costs. 4 Recommendation I ) Adopt second reading of the attached City Council Ordinance No. 210 adopting revised building codes as outlined above.