ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Chief Building Official

SUBJECT:

Collaboration with the Province of British Columbia on the Adoption of an Objective Based Building Code.

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

Under the Vancouver Charter, the City can make By-laws to regulate the construction of buildings (s.306(a)) and can adopt any code relating to the construction of buildings, with any changes Council considers appropriate (s.306(w)).

PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

This report recommends that the next edition of the Building By-law be based on the objective based code currently in preparation by the National Research Council and that it be developed in collaboration with the Province including participation by the City in the public consultation process.
BACKGROUND

As stated in the Council Policy section of this report, Vancouver is enabled under the Vancouver Charter to adopt By-laws to regulate the construction of buildings. The Vancouver Building By-law regulates the design and construction requirements for buildings as well as the administrative provisions for permitting, inspection, and enforcement of these requirements.

Vancouver's ability to adopt its own By-law regulating the construction of buildings is unique in the Province and also unusual in the rest of Canada. It is an important authority which allows Council the opportunity to be responsive to local issues impacting on building safety much more effectively and quickly than other municipalities. Using this ability, Vancouver has been a leader in adopting a number of building code provisions, many of which have eventually been adopted provincially or nationally. A notable example of this leadership being the City's 1996 requirement for rainscreen cladding systems on wood frame buildings. This requirement has now been widely emulated throughout BC and will likely be incorporated in the next editions of the National and BC Building Codes.

While staff view the City's authority to enact its own Building By-law as an important asset to the City, there has been consistent industry pressure for a uniform building code for the entire Province, including Vancouver. The 1999 edition of the Vancouver Building By-law attempted to deal with these industry concerns, to the greatest extent possible, without affecting previous Council policy directions. The 1998 British Columbia Building Code was adopted as the base document and only those differences which were based on adopted Council policy directions, unique Vancouver requirements, specific operational requirements of the Vancouver Fire Department and some minor technical requirements were retained.

Preparation of the 1999 Vancouver Building By-law was a formidable task. In addition to the work required to review and analyse the impact of adopting the BC Building Code on the unique to Vancouver requirements, the construction industry was afforded the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed revisions before their submission to Council. Early drafts of various Parts of the proposed By-law were distributed to industry for comment as they were completed and further revisions were made based on those comments.

In 1996, following publication of the 1995 National Building Code of Canada (the base document for the BC and Vancouver codes), the National Research Council embarked on development of an objective based building code for Canada. This document is designed to facilitate a more flexible approach to building regulation, by permitting alternate design solutions based on meeting the fundamental intent and objectives of the code. This code will be produced as a single document consisting of two parts. Part A would contain objectives and functional requirements and Part B would contain quantitative performance criteria and acceptable solutions. Part B for the objective based code would essentially resemble the 1995 code, with normal technical upgrades.

DISCUSSION

Development of this objective based code by the National Research Council is a change in the philosophy and format of the code. This has extended the development period for the code from the normal five year cycle to approximately ten years, with a commensurate increase in staff and committee time requirements. In the development process of this code, a large number of existing requirements have been flagged by the standing committees for changes to improve their coordination with the intent statements and functional requirements of Part A. In addition, due to the extended developmental period for the code, a larger number than usual of recommended technical changes have been processed by the standing committees. These changes, numbering approximately 1300 in total, will be issued shortly for Public/Stakeholder review.

It is proposed therefore that the next edition of the Vancouver Building By-law would adopt this objective based format. Part A of the by-law would encompass the objectives and functional requirements of the by-law and would remain relatively unchanged through future editions. Part B would closely resemble the current by-law and would be subject to normal technical changes over the years. This objective based format is designed to provide greater flexibility in the use of the by-law and assist in the preparation and evaluation of equivalencies and alternative designs by providing better information on the intent and objectives of the technical requirements. It would also assist in the application of the by-law to major renovations, additions and changes in use of existing buildings.

In order to harmonize the adoption of building codes across Canada, the NRC is developing this objective based code in close collaboration with the provinces and territories. This process devolves the public/stakeholder review of the proposed changes to the provinces. The public review of the changes in British Columbia will be conducted by the Building Policy Branch of the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's services and is currently scheduled to take place in early 2003.

Although the City has a separate building by-law, it is closely aligned with the provincial building code. A separate public consultation process on the proposed changes would thus largely duplicate the Provincial process. A more efficient use of staff time would be obtained by collaborating with the province in the public consultation process and by participating in the technical assessment of the impact of the changes on the construction community. This collaboration would also simplify the consultation process for the public and the construction community.

Implementation of both the objective based format and the technical code changes will require close consultation with the construction industry and extensive in-depth training for design professionals, contractors and regulatory personnel. This will place significant demands on training for staff in Development Services and Licenses and Inspections. By collaborating with the Province on the consultation we would anticipate continuing this collaboration into the training and implementation programs, thus significantly reducing the need to structure and deliver these programs on our own.

It is anticipated that administration of the objective based code by the City will be easier, as the NRC have taken this opportunity to simplify this edition of the code by removing outdated requirements, improving the clarity and structure of the code, and providing more guidance to users in the form of expanded appendix notes. Improved clarity for code users should translate into enhanced understanding and more effective application of the code to building permit submissions. It should also facilitate more uniform processing by City staff of building permit applications.

Accordingly, in September, staff met with the Province to review the feasibility of collaborating with the Province in a more structured manner on the development of the objective based code. The proposed areas of collaboration are:-

· Participation in the public consultation process over the implementation of the National Building Code and the adoption of the approximately 1300 changes proposed for the next edition of the National Building Code. This collaboration would likely include participating in public information sessions and placing links between our respective web sites with additional information relating to specific "Unique to Vancouver" clauses.
· Joint development of statements of intent and objectives for the BC and Vancouver proposals that vary from the national codes. This will assist with the coordination of future code interpretations.
· Participation by the City in the review of public comments on the proposed changes to the National Building Code and on the move toward objective based codes.

·Assistance from the City with the technical review of the proposed BC changes, consistent with our in-house resources.
· Participation by the City in the consultation and training required to successfully implement the objective based code.

The Province has indicated it would welcome collaboration from the City in the development of the objective based codes and in promoting their use in the City and British Columbia. It is considered that this will increase understanding for code users working in the City and in other British Columbia jurisdictions. Staff are similarly supportive of this collaboration as it should result in a more effective consultation process and more efficient use of our available resources.

CONCLUSION

The proposed collaboration with the Province on the public consultation process and subsequent adoption of an objective based building code presents significant opportunities for the City to achieve the following major objectives for the City:

· Increased harmonization of our building by-law and related standards with Provincial and National standards.
· More effective consultation with the public and the construction community on the adoption and implementation of an objective based building by-law.
· More efficient use of staff time in developing an objective based building by-law and in carrying out an effective public consultation process, which could otherwise place a severe strain on our technical and administrative resources.
· An enhanced understanding and more effective application of the code to building permit submissions..
· A more consistent approach to the evaluation and acceptance of objective and performance based design proposals.

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© 2002 City of Vancouver