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Athens officials received word in May that the city building codes need to be updated to avoid being downgraded on its Building Code Effectiveness score.
“The survey was delivered by the Insurance Services Office — a non-public organization that essentially does analytics for the property and casualty insurance industry," Managing Director of Public Services Ryan Adams said. "The main reason for that downgrade is the year of publication of the codes that we adopted, which is 2006."
The Building Code Effectiveness grading schedule is used to assess the effectiveness of local building codes and enforcement. After surveying municipal codes and enforcement methods, communities are assigned BCEGS classifications. A score of 1 is exemplary, Adams said. A score of 10 means the city has dated and/or poorly enforced codes.
On May 29, Athens received notification that its BCEGS score was downgraded.
Athens' commercial rating had been Class 4 but was downgraded to Class 10. The residential rating was Class 5, but that was also downgraded — to Class 10.
Adams said the downgrade has been placed on a one-year hold and will not go into effect if city officials implement a program to regain its previous scores. The city must notify ISO of the plan by Aug. 29.
Adams said the survey is conducted every three years.
"It's meant to distinguish communities that have a very strong building code program and inspection program versus those whose codes or processes are out of date or poorly enforced.”
Ryan said three areas of improvement are available for Athens to improve its scores. One is to update its building codes to the 2015 or 2018 editions. Another is staff certifications to make sure employees know how to effectively enforce the codes. The third is to make administrative improvements, such as adding checklists and using public-awareness campaigns related to the code.
Updating the codes would be an involved and carefully considered process, Adams said. It would include engagement with the building and development community and review and discussion with the Code Commission. It also requires ultimate approval of city council members.
Mayor Monte Montgomery said city officials were using the 2015 codes two years ago during a previous administration.
"We regressed from 2015 to 2006," Montgomery said. "Now we're going back to where we were."
Adams said if the city adopts the 2015 codes it should be explicitly stated in the ordinance that those are the codes being used.
"It's good to enforce the best building regulations that we can, but it's good to have the code so that everyone in our building community knows how they're going to be evaluated," Adams said.
Councilman Robert Gross asked how much latitude ISO allows on the date of the codes. Adams said they prefer them to be within six years of the current date.
Montgomery said about three years ago, the city was using the Southern Building Code. That was changed to the International Building Code.
"At the time, it was 2006 International Building Code," Montgomery said. "From there, the wording says that any changes will automatically be implemented without consultation, without input from the council. So all staff, council and professionals at the time interpreted that it would automatically go up, and it did."
Montgomery said the city planning director at the time sent notices showing that the city had changed to a newer set of building codes, with notations alerting those concerned to particular changes.
Reverting to the 2006 code has been devastating to the city, he said.
"We're reaping what we sew. Council, I say we put this on the city manager to get us back in alignment."
City Manager Elizabeth Borstad said the question is whether the city should adopt the 2015 codes or go directly to the 2018 codes.
"It's going to be your preference as to how to set it up this time," she said.
Adams said staff will word an ordinance to show the intent of the city regarding the code and so that any updates are unmistakable.
“The survey was delivered by the Insurance Services Office — a non-public organization that essentially does analytics for the property and casualty insurance industry," Managing Director of Public Services Ryan Adams said. "The main reason for that downgrade is the year of publication of the codes that we adopted, which is 2006."
The Building Code Effectiveness grading schedule is used to assess the effectiveness of local building codes and enforcement. After surveying municipal codes and enforcement methods, communities are assigned BCEGS classifications. A score of 1 is exemplary, Adams said. A score of 10 means the city has dated and/or poorly enforced codes.
On May 29, Athens received notification that its BCEGS score was downgraded.
Athens' commercial rating had been Class 4 but was downgraded to Class 10. The residential rating was Class 5, but that was also downgraded — to Class 10.
Adams said the downgrade has been placed on a one-year hold and will not go into effect if city officials implement a program to regain its previous scores. The city must notify ISO of the plan by Aug. 29.
Adams said the survey is conducted every three years.
"It's meant to distinguish communities that have a very strong building code program and inspection program versus those whose codes or processes are out of date or poorly enforced.”
Ryan said three areas of improvement are available for Athens to improve its scores. One is to update its building codes to the 2015 or 2018 editions. Another is staff certifications to make sure employees know how to effectively enforce the codes. The third is to make administrative improvements, such as adding checklists and using public-awareness campaigns related to the code.
Updating the codes would be an involved and carefully considered process, Adams said. It would include engagement with the building and development community and review and discussion with the Code Commission. It also requires ultimate approval of city council members.
Mayor Monte Montgomery said city officials were using the 2015 codes two years ago during a previous administration.
"We regressed from 2015 to 2006," Montgomery said. "Now we're going back to where we were."
Adams said if the city adopts the 2015 codes it should be explicitly stated in the ordinance that those are the codes being used.
"It's good to enforce the best building regulations that we can, but it's good to have the code so that everyone in our building community knows how they're going to be evaluated," Adams said.
Councilman Robert Gross asked how much latitude ISO allows on the date of the codes. Adams said they prefer them to be within six years of the current date.
Montgomery said about three years ago, the city was using the Southern Building Code. That was changed to the International Building Code.
"At the time, it was 2006 International Building Code," Montgomery said. "From there, the wording says that any changes will automatically be implemented without consultation, without input from the council. So all staff, council and professionals at the time interpreted that it would automatically go up, and it did."
Montgomery said the city planning director at the time sent notices showing that the city had changed to a newer set of building codes, with notations alerting those concerned to particular changes.
Reverting to the 2006 code has been devastating to the city, he said.
"We're reaping what we sew. Council, I say we put this on the city manager to get us back in alignment."
City Manager Elizabeth Borstad said the question is whether the city should adopt the 2015 codes or go directly to the 2018 codes.
"It's going to be your preference as to how to set it up this time," she said.
Adams said staff will word an ordinance to show the intent of the city regarding the code and so that any updates are unmistakable.