Breaking the code

Local governments prepare for building code change

By Jeremy Harrell
Daily Reporter Staff

Web posted: July 24, 2001

Wisconsin's Department of Commerce is set to introduce the international commercial building codes in the next year, and municipalities and their building inspectors are gearing up for the change.

"At first blush, it's like learning Chinese," said Henry Kosarzycki, one of Commerce's municipal agent monitors helping smaller communities make a transition to independent building inspections. "But really it's not. The philosophy is always going to be the same."

Commerce has spent the last five years working on a Wisconsin version of the International Code Council's suite of commercial building codes. After recently reaching agreement with the various parties who serve on the agency's code councils, the department will most likely adopt the codes in the coming months, with implementation to follow next year.

Before the new codes take effect, building inspectors will have to bone up on the finer points, said Bob Blankenheim, director of Wisconsin Building Services for Independent Inspections, the state's largest independent municipal inspecting company. Many state municipalities hire businesses like Independent Inspections to perform code enforcement, and Blankenheim said his company will begin intense training on the new codes later this year.

"There will be a huge learning curve because it's going to be new to everybody," he said. "You're going to be dealing with people who have been doing things this way for 30 years, and now it's different."

Blankenheim said his company must also carry the burden of having to be familiar with the codes while architects, engineers and especially contractors are still thumbing through the new code books and slowly applying new techniques in the field.

"We have to be up and running before the contractors are," he said.

But both Blankenheim and Kosarzycki said the building inspectors should be up to speed once the codes are implemented, and they predicted the new codes would have little effect on builders' day-to-day operations.

"Everything's going to be the same as far as the process is concerned," Blankenheim said. "It's going to be a change, and there will be some roadblocks. The Department of Commerce has already solicited comments from building inspectors on what the problems may be. I think things will get ironed out sooner rather than later."

Delegating power

"Under the commercial building code, a municipality can have a more restricted code. Municipal enforcement may be cheaper because they can review for the municipality and the state at the same time." Randy Baldwin Bureau Director for Integrated Services State Department of Commerce

Over the last few years, Commerce has worked out a program granting local governments the authority to perform building inspections and review development and building plans. More than 100 municipalities, some with populations of less than 1,000, others with more than 50,000 people, have taken up Commerce's offer.

Under the old system, local governments sent plans to the Commerce office in Madison and waited for the high sign to allow construction to start. Under the new system, communities, often working with independent inspecting agents, have reaped the benefits of speeding up the review process, which saves time and money for developers, Kosarzycki said.

"It's a financial advantage to municipalities because it eliminates duplication," he said. "Before, somebody came in to build a building and the municipal government said, 'You have to go the state.' It may increase costs to go through the state."

And, according to Commerce's commercial building code implementation rules, local governments can tack their own building ordinances onto the state code, allowing municipalities to control their building environment, said Randy Baldwin, Commerce's bureau director for integrated services. Communities can save money again through the combination of state and local enforcement, he said.

"Under the commercial building code, a municipality can have a more restricted code," he said. "Municipal enforcement may be cheaper because they can review for the municipality and the state at the same time."

The fact that new building codes are coming down the pike, however, probably won't translate to an increased demand for independent inspectors, Blankenheim and Kosarzycki agreed.

"The more tenured building inspectors might decide it's time to call it quits," Kosarzycki said of the new codes' likely effect.

More than anything, the international codes will make work easier for companies like Independent Inspections that employ a broad range of designers and engineers. For Blankenheim, the rewards will double because his staff works in two other states that use international building codes, he said.

"We have a large staff, and it's easier for me to educate the whole staff, rather than for a municipality to send its two inspectors to school," he said. "The new code will increase our interaction with other states and let our designers work with designers in other states. If the entire country goes to the International Building Code, life will be pretty good for me."

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