POLICY REPORT
BUILDING

TO:

City Council

FROM:

Chief Building Official

SUBJECT:

Building By-law Upgrades to Existing Buildings

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

Under the Vancouver Charter, the City may pass By-laws to regulate the design and construction of buildings and adopt any code relating to the construction of buildings, with any changes that Council considers appropriate.

Council Policy related to the building requirements for existing buildings is established in Part 10 of the 1999 Vancouver Building By-law. The primary objective of these requirements is to mandate reasonable fire and life safety upgrades in existing buildings as buildings are altered and/or rehabilitated over time while maintaining public safety.

In January 2003, Council endorsed the adoption of an objective based Building By-law for the next edition of the Vancouver Building By-law. An objective based Building By-law will provide a more consistent approach to the evaluation and acceptance of objective and performance based design proposals.

In December 1999, Council approved funding and a work program to review the Building By-law for existing buildings. This work was proposed to be completed in conjunction with the Gastown Heritage Management Plan as it was seen to be of potential benefit for facilitating building rehabilitation.

SUMMARY

This report proposes amendments to the Building By-law to more effectively encourage the re-use and rehabilitation of existing buildings. The issues discussed in this report may be summarized as follows:

· Council Update - This report updates Council on results of a study carried out by staff with respect to the development of new regulations for existing buildings as well as provides a discussion related to the advantages and disadvantages of the current trigger mechanism for determining when, and the extent of required upgrades to existing buildings.
· New Trigger Mechanism Model - This report proposes and discusses a new trigger mechanism model that has been developed by staff for determining the appropriate level of upgrades for existing buildings which are being altered through the City's permit process. (See Appendix A) This new mechanism is based on categories of work, rather than value of construction and assessment value of the building, as used in the current Building By-law. The intended impact and benefits of the proposed trigger mechanism are also discussed.
· Pilot Project - This report proposes that the new trigger mechanism model be piloted for a period of one year so that staff may further test, evaluate and refine the model as well as seek broader public consultation. After the pilot period, staff will report back to Council with recommendations for any subsequent modifications deemed appropriate.
· Amendments to Part 10 of the Building By-law (Existing Buildings) - This report proposes amendments to Part 10 of the By-law in order to provide more flexibility and discretion when applying the requirements of the By-law to existing buildings. (See Appendix B) Part 10 of the Building By-law contains specific regulations that are intended for the alteration, addition and change of occupancy to existing buildings. The proposed amendments are intended to include clear policy objectives for Building By-lawupgrades to existing buildings as well as clarify the application and scope of the Building By-law with respect to existing buildings.

BACKGROUND

Building owners and designers have for many years expressed concerns related to the application of the Building By-law with respect to existing buildings. Building owners and designers have suggested that the existing model for determining upgrades in existing buildings does not consider the existing performance level of a building as it is solely based on values of construction and assessment value. Often the current By-law has discouraged building owners from re-using existing buildings and/or rehabilitating them due to onerous upgrade requirements. These concerns have led the City to carry out this study in order to determine a more reasonable method of determining an acceptable level of upgrade while still balancing the need for safety in buildings.

The Building By-law regulates the design and construction for new buildings as well as alterations to existing buildings. It also includes administrative provisions related to permitting, inspections and enforcement of these requirements. Where work is carried out to an existing building, the current Building By-law requires that the existing building be upgraded to an "acceptable level".

Currently this "acceptable level" is determined based on the proposed value of construction as a percentage of the building's assessed value (excluding land value) as outlined in Table A of the Building By-law. Table A specifies the acceptable level of Building By-law upgrade required for an existing building when it is altered and/or rehabilitated. The City has used Table A since 1978, and in many cases, it has proved to be an effective and reasonable tool for determining the appropriate level of upgrade for existing buildings when they are altered. However, where an existing building has a low assessment value, the current trigger mechanism can be unduly onerous, and therefore does not encourage the re-use and rehabilitation of existing buildings. It is not uncommon for older buildings to have low assessment values and thus require a full Building By-law upgrade as a condition of building permit approval for alterations which are minor in nature.

Building codes are typically oriented towards the design and construction of new buildings. This orientation tends to make it difficult to apply code requirements to existing buildings. Many of these difficulties are due to the introduction of incremental improvements to the Building By-law over the last 25 years. These incremental changes are reasonable for new buildings, however in the case of existing buildings, the new requirements are difficult to implement. Some of the code requirements that have caused problems in older buildings are:

· Dimensional requirements. (ie. stairs, corridors, exit doors etc.)
· Limitations on building size and height.
· Requirements to upgrade functional fire protection (ie. automatic sprinkler systems,standpipe systems, fire separations etc.), plumbing and/or electrical systems.
· Provisions requiring changes in the type of construction of the building. (ie. combustible or noncombustible construction)
· Structural requirements. (ie. seismic)
· Accessibility requirements.

The City of Vancouver has been seen as a leader with respect to our existing building regulations. Many municipalities in the lower mainland use our Table A as a guideline for determining the appropriate level of building code upgrades for existing buildings when they are altered. Since the adoption of the current mechanism for triggering upgrades to existing buildings (Table A), other model code organizations in North America have more recently developed building code regulations for existing buildings. These model codes are discussed further in the discussion section of this report. At the time that Table A was adopted into the Building By-law there were no other guidelines available to assist municipal staff, building owners and designers with upgrades to existing buildings.

While Table A and the existing Part 10 regulations have served the City well since 1978, it is increasingly becoming outdated and difficult to apply with the numerous incremental improvements to the By-law. Low assessed values in certain areas of the City has led to an uneven and un-equitable impact of the current existing building regulations.

These concerns have led staff to carry out a study of the Building By-law requirements with respect to existing buildings. This study identified a need to:

1. Develop a new trigger mechanism to determine the appropriate level of Building By-law upgrade for an existing building when it is being altered; and
2. amend the Building By-law in such a way as to provide greater clarity, flexibility and discretion when applying the By-law to existing buildings.

DISCUSSION

Objectives of Existing Building Study - When developing By-law requirements it is important that the objectives be clearly established. Prior to the start of this study, the following overall objectives for existing buildings were established by staff:

· Safety in buildings is paramount, therefore existing building safety must be maintained. Work carried out in an existing building should leave the building no less safe than it was prior to the commencement of work, and all new work should comply with the current Building By-law.
· Upgrading of a building under the By-law should be limited to requirements which have objectives of health, safety and accessibility of the occupants and the protection of adjacent property.
· The appropriate upgrade level should consider the hazard risk related to a new use relative to the building's existing use when the use and/or occupancy classification isbeing changed.
· Value of construction relative to assessment value should be abandoned as a major factor when determining the appropriate level of upgrade to existing buildings.
· The By-law requirements should provide greater discretion and flexibility in order to encourage the rehabilitation of existing buildings.
· The impact of upgrade requirements should be limited for homeowners as well as small business tenants to what is reasonably achievable. Renovations to individual tenant spaces within a multi-tenanted building should not generally trigger upgrades to other tenant spaces.
· There should be different levels of upgrades for fire, seismic and accessibility depending on the specific category of work being carried out in the building. Upgrade levels should incrementally increase depending on the nature of work.
· An addition, alteration or change of use of a building should not create or increase the level of non-conformance of the building with the By-law.
· A building whose life is being extended significantly beyond its original design life should be upgraded to an acceptable level.
· Requirements for energy efficiency and sustainability should be introduced into the upgrade requirements as other City policies and By-laws are developed.
· No upgrading, other than correction of unsafe conditions, should be required for a building which has been constructed or fully upgraded in conformance with Building By-law #6134.

Review of Existing Building Regulations in Other Jurisdictions - Neither the National Building Code of Canada nor the British Columbia Building Code contain guidelines or direction as to how to determine the appropriate level of upgrade to existing buildings. Canadian building codes either state that the appropriate upgrade level is to be determined by the Chief Building Official and/or be based on the proposed value of construction.

During this study staff reviewed various North American building codes with respect to existing building regulations. The following codes were reviewed extensively and found to contain provisions for determining the appropriate "acceptable level" of upgrade that were not based on values of constructions:

· New Jersey Rehabilitation Code (State of New Jersey)
· Ontario Building Code (Part 11)
· International Existing Building Code (International Code Council, ICC)
· National Fire Protection Association Code for Existing Buildings

All of these codes include special requirements and provisions applicable to existing buildings. These codes contain a comprehensive set of requirements that ensure fire and life safety in existing buildings as well as a mechanism for determining the appropriate upgrade level for existing buildings. The State of New Jersey was one of the first States to develop a building code for existing buildings. The New Jersey Rehabilitation Code was adopted and published on January 5, 1998. This code is viewed as a leader with respect to existingbuilding regulations and served as a model for the development of the Ontario Building Code (Part 11), International Existing Building Code and the National Fire Protection Association Code for Existing Buildings.

The concepts used in the above noted codes were used to develop the new trigger mechanism model for determining an "acceptable upgrade level" for existing buildings that is proposed in this report. Since most of these model codes are based on building code classifications used in the United States, and do not consider our Council mandated policies such as mandatory sprinklering, staff felt that it was not appropriate to simply adopt one of these codes for use in the City of Vancouver. Therefore, this report proposes a new upgrade trigger mechanism which recognizes the current Council mandated policies contained in the Building By-law.

Summary of Proposed Trigger Mechanism Model - The proposed trigger mechanism is based entirely on categories of work, rather than value of construction and the assessment value of an existing building, to determine the appropriate "acceptable level" of Building By-law upgrade when a building is undergoing an alteration. This fundamental concept enables building owners and designers to easily determine what are the applicable upgrade levels as well as the intended objective of these upgrade levels for a particular project involving an existing building. It also provides a more realistic and reasonable method of determining the appropriate upgrade level for an existing building as it considers the actual work being carried out rather than monetary values. The model proposed in this report is based on the following four concepts:

1. Public Safety is Paramount - When an existing building or portion of a building is altered it should not be less safe than it was prior to the alteration. All clearly unsafe conditions (guards, handrails, etc.) must be addressed and corrected.
2. Predictability - Building owners/designers should be able to predict the appropriate/required level of upgrade before starting a rehabilitation project. The applicable upgrade requirements as well as the objective of the upgrade levels must be clear and available.
3. Upgrade Levels to be Incremental - Building By-law upgrades should be incrementally increased in a building depending on the nature and extent of the work being carried out. For example, seismic provisions should be gradually increased from the requirement to provide non-structural enhancements to full By-law compliance.

4. Flexibility - the By-law should provide building owners and designers with more flexibility when applying the Building By-law to existing buildings.

The proposed model establishes an acceptable Building By-law upgrade level through categories of work such as repair, minor and major renovations, reconstruction, change of use, and additions. Definitions for these categories of work are provided in Appendix A along with the proposed upgrade trigger mechanism. Once the appropriate category of work is established, the appropriate upgrade level may be determined using the flow chartsillustrated in Appendix A of this report. This new model establishes four upgrade levels. Each of these upgrade levels contain separate objectives along with the applicable By-law requirements that are deemed to meet the intended objective of each level. The objectives of each upgrade level are incrementally increased. For example, a Level one upgrade requires a low level of upgrade compliance, where as a Level 4 upgrade would require a higher level of compliance. Each of the upgrade levels provides specific requirements to meet the following objectives of the Building By-law:

1. Fire, Life and Health Safety
2. Structural Safety
3. Accessibility for Persons With Disabilities

Staff believe that approval of the proposed upgrade trigger mechanism will have the following positive impacts/benefits for existing buildings:

· Encourage reinvestment in existing buildings and neighbourhoods.
· Promote adaptive reuse of buildings.
· Ensure safe buildings.
· Make rehabilitation requirements and costs more predictable for building owners.
· Protect the historic architectural integrity of buildings.
· Provide an even and equitable level of upgrade throughout the City.

Summary of Proposed Building By-law Amendments - In order to provide adequate flexibility and discretion when applying Building By-law requirements to existing buildings, staff recommend that the By-law establish clear objectives for the application of the Building By-law with respect to existing buildings. Should Council adopt these amendments, the objectives for building by-law upgrades will be clearly stated in Part 10 of the Building By-law. Part 10 will also be revised in order to clarify the scope and application of the By-law with respect to existing buildings. Staff believe that these amendments will lead to a more consistent approach and application of the Building By-law for existing buildings. This approach will also facilitate the ability of building owners and designers to develop alternative solutions to meet the prescriptive requirements of the Building By-law. Furthermore, this approach will establish clear objectives for staff when evaluating alternative solutions which are intended to meet the intent of prescriptive Building By-law requirements. This proposed format is similar to that of an objective based code. As mentioned earlier in this report, the next cycle of codes in Canada, as well as the next edition of the Building By-law, will be in the objective based format. The proposed amendments for Part 10 are provided in Appendix B in this report.

IMPLEMENTATION / MONITORING

Staff acknowledge the inherent difficulties in trying to fully test, evaluate and seek broad consultation from the public who are most affected by the proposed upgrade model, prior to formal adoption by Council. Therefore, in order to properly test, evaluate and consult thepublic, staff recommend that the proposed trigger mechanism be piloted for a period of one year. During this pilot period, staff will be seeking feedback from members of the public who are most affected by the model as well as testing the model with actual projects and proposing adjustments where necessary.

During this pilot period staff will also monitor the results of the proposed model. This period will be used to determine further refinement of the model where necessary. The Chief Building Official's office will set up a technical committee comprised of a District Building Inspector (Inspection Branch), Building Code Engineer (Processing Centre - Building) and a representative from the Planning Department. This committee will be chaired by the Code Development Engineer and all permit applications involving existing buildings will be reviewed by this committee in order to improve and adjust the proposed model, as required. Through this process, staff will be able to assess whether or not the proposed model is meeting the overall objectives of the By-law. At the end of the pilot period, staff will prepare a report for Council on the implementation of the new model with recommendations for improvements where appropriate.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

Extensive public consultation will be carried out during the pilot period. Through this, staff will be able to seek broader feedback. This feedback should prove to be very beneficial as members of the public who are most affected by our Building By-law will be able to respond with real life projects.

This report has been circulated to the Urban Development Institute (UDI), Certified Professional Committee (CP Committee), and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC Building Code Committee for review and comments related to the concepts of the model. The City's Certified Professional Committee has representation from a wide range of stakeholders in the building industry such as the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEGBC), the Architectural Institute of BC (AIBC), UDI, Building Officials Association of BC, and local Building Code Consultants. These committees were asked to provide comments as to whether or not the concept of the proposed model is reasonable for determining the appropriate level of upgrades for existing buildings. All of these groups were in favour of the proposed upgrade model for existing buildings and felt that this work represented a significant improvement over the current regulation. Both the CP Committee and the APEGBC Building Code Committee felt that the City's decision to pilot this model was appropriate.

The proposed upgrade trigger mechanism was also presented to the Building Officials Association of BC (BOABC) in late November 2003. The presentation was well received by members who felt that the concepts of the model were progressive and could provide improved guidance to Building Officials when determining the appropriate level of upgrade for existing buildings which are being altered under the building permit process.

The exact details and calibration of the model will be determined through the pilot projectwith stakeholders who are most affected. Prior to bringing a subsequent report to Council at the end of the pilot period, staff will consult with a wider group of stakeholders such as the Vancouver Heritage Commission and the Gastown Historic Planning Committee for further feedback and comments.

It should also be mentioned that the concepts of this model have been presented to the Heritage Planning Group and Community Planning staff. Both groups supported the proposed concept and felt that it would make it easier for building owners to rehabilitate their properties. Staff feel that this work represents a major improvement to our Building By-law.

CONCLUSION

Concerns expressed by building owners and designers led staff to carry out a study of the current Building By-law requirements with respect to existing buildings. This report provides an update on the results of this study, proposes a new mechanism for determining the appropriate level of upgrades for existing buildings, and proposes amendments to the Building By-law in order to provide greater clarity, flexibility, and discretion when applying the By-law to existing buildings.

This report reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of the existing method for determining the appropriate level of Building By-law upgrades for existing building. It examined other model building codes used throughout North America in order to develop a new trigger mechanism for determining the appropriate level of upgrade for existing buildings.

Staff feel that the proposed mechanism should encourage the re-use and rehabilitation of existing buildings in the City while still maintaining an acceptable level of safety. The proposed upgrade trigger mechanism is based on maintaining building safety, predictability of upgrade requirements, incremental upgrades for buildings and greater flexibility when applying the Building By-law to existing buildings. Staff recommend that, should Council adopt this model, it be piloted for a period of one year so that staff can further evaluate the model and seek broader public consultation. At the end of the pilot period, staff will report back to Council on the implementation of the model, together with any recommendations for its refinement/improvement.

In order to provide greater discretion and flexibility when applying the requirements of the By-law to existing buildings, this report recommends that Part 10 of the Building By-law be revised to include broad policy objectives related to the City's expectation with respect to Building By-law upgrades for existing buildings which are being altered under the building permit process. The report also recommends revisions to Part 10 of the Building By-law that are intended to clarify the application of the By-law with respect to existing buildings.

LINK TO APPENDICES A AND B

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ag20040323.htm

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