ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
                                                  Date:  September 29, 1995
                                               Dept. File No.:  PERSDIS.RPT

   TO:       Vancouver City Council

   FROM:     City Building Inspector

   SUBJECT:  Amendments  to  the Building  By-law  relating  to Access  for
             Persons with Disabilities 

   RECOMMENDATION

        A.   THAT Council approve in  principle amendments to the Vancouver
             Building By-law  relating to "accessibility  to buildings  for
             persons with  disabilities", to  match as closely  as possible
             the requirements  contained in  the  current British  Columbia
             Building Code, and

        B.   THAT Council request the Director of Legal Services  to revise
             the Building By-law accordingly.


   GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

        The  General Manager  of  the Community  Services Group  RECOMMENDS
        approval of A and B.

   COUNCIL POLICY

   Since setting  up its  first subcommittee  on "accessibility issues"  in
   1969,   and   approving  the   very   first   by-law  requirements   for
   "accessibility" in Canada in 1973,  Council has always supported  having
   disability issues addressed  in the Building  By-law, and their  uniform
   enforcement.


   SUMMARY

   The  City Building  Inspector is  recommending that  the City  amend its
   current   building   regulations    relating   to   "accessibility"   to
   substantially match  the  wording and  intent  of the  British  Columbia
   Building  Code.   This report  will also  explain why  they have  become
   different since 1992.

   BACKGROUND

   In  1973, Council passed the  very first building  regulations in Canada
   relating to requirements  for access  to, and within  buildings for  the
   disabled.   The requirements  were added  as a separate  Part 10  to the
   Building By-law.  Five years later, the Province also added requirements
   in the provincial building code that were similar to the City's.



   In 1987, Council approved  consolidating "accessibility" provisions into
   the main body of  the By-law, and adding some  newer provincial "access"
   amendments.  The  requirements of the City  and the Province  were again
   virtually identical until 1992 when the province again made amendments.


   DISCUSSION

   This is another step in our recent efforts to modernize and simplify the
   City's  building regulations and to  eventually bring them  more in line
   with the 1992 provincial and  now also the 1995 national building  code,

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   wherever applicable.

   The present Vancouver Building  By-law is currently based mostly  on the
   format  of the  1985  edition of  the National  Building Code  of Canada
   (NBC).  The British Columbia Building Code (BCBC), on the other hand, is
   based  on the  1990 edition of  the NBC.   The formats of  these two NBC
   editions are  not the same.   This accounts for most  of the differences
   between the City's and the Province's accessibility regulations.

   Other  differences resulted  from  provincial amendments  made in  1992,
   which  we have not yet  adopted because of  key staff retirements during
   that time and a four-year period during which we had no Codes Engineer.

   The  majority of  the  changes  being  adopted  from  the  B.C.B.C.  are
   editorial  in nature.    The changes  of  any significance  include  the
   following:

   1.   Some relatively minor  exemptions from "accessibility" requirements
        would be added and some would be deleted.

   2.   Washrooms with  multiple water closets  would require at  least one
        "accessible" toilet room.

   3.   Automatic-type  doors would  have to  be provided for  entrances to
        certain types of buildings.

   4.   Doors  required to  reach  "accessibility" areas  will now  require
        lever-type latching devices.

   In addition  to adopting most of the wording and  format of the BCBC, we
   may  include some  amendments  to clarify  the  intent of  current  BCBC
   wording with which we have had interpretation problems, as do some other
   B.C.  municipal authorities.    Such  amendments  will,  of  course,  be
   coordinated  with the  Provincial  Building Standards  Branch to  ensure
   similar interpretations.




   The  Province,  itself,  has  a  special  standing   committee  that  is
   continually  addressing needed  changes to  "accessibility" regulations,
   and  the City  once  again has  a  staff member  who  is assisting  that
   committee.    This will  ensure that  our  requirements will  again more
   closely  match those  of the Province  and will  stay that  way while we
   participate.


   CONCLUSION

   These  amendments will bring the City in  line with the most recent BCBC
   accessibility requirements,  and will further reduce  frustration on the
   part  of design professionals and builders who are often confronted with
   differences in wording and format between the two codes.


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