Could bill to revamp commercial building code updates leave homeowners in the cold?

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the dysfunctional manner in which Pennsylvania updates its building codes. Today, there is a hearing in Harrisburg on a bill that attempts to address some of that dysfunction -- by creating separate processes for commercial and residential building code updates.

Rep. Patrick Harkins’ bill would require the Review and Advisory Council (RAC) to re-review the 2012 codes for commercial buildings and advise the Department of Labor and Industry in writing of any code provisions the council recommends to be excluded. The residential code review process would remain unchanged. 

The good news: folks in Harrisburg are waking up to the deficiencies of the existing RAC process, and the potentially harmful real-world implications of sub-standard building codes. We thank Rep. Harkins for drawing attention to Pennsylvania’s broken code adoption process. We share his concerns about building safety, and the inefficient and ineffective way we go about updating Pennsylvania’s codes. 

However, the answer to addressing this problem is not to limit that harm to only homeowners and residential buildings. While separating the code adoption processes may enable commercial code updates to move forward, it would leave us with two classes of buildings: commercial buildings that are safe, modern, and energy efficient -- and residential buildings that are out of date, potentially unsafe, and not in keeping with industry best practices. 

Pennsylvania needs a predictable, transparent approach to guarantee that all of our structures are built in accordance with the newest and best building codes.