A comprehensive rewrite of the county building code is heading for its first vetting at a County Council committee after more than a year of tinkering by the county Building Division and various stakeholders.
The 197-page bill is scheduled to be heard July 7 by the Committee on Public Works and Mass Transit. It can be downloaded here: https://www.dpw.hawaiicounty.gov/resources/new-building-code/-fsiteid-4.
The county laws incorporating building, plumbing and electrical codes will now be in one document, known as the construction code. The energy conservation code, updated earlier this year, is also included.
The building code has been amended to include tiny houses and both the electrical and plumbing codes were brought up to later standards.
With the code consolidation comes a streamlining of the permit application and plan review process by consolidating what are currently separate permits from the existing codes into a single permit.
The legislation also includes a uniform fee schedule and specifies penalties of $1,000 plus the fees specified by the code, or the fees specified by the code will be doubled, whichever is greater, for work commenced without obtaining a permit.
“This bill was a monumental undertaking for our staff and our stakeholders that took over a year and a half to get to this point,” acting Building Division Chief Robyn Matsumoto said in a press release. “But consolidating our codes was something that needed to be done because now there is a clear and consistent permitting path that supports a one-permit system. In addition, this new administrative code further prepares us for the upcoming amendments to the building codes.”
Changes to the codes are difficult to compare with current law, because they’re presented as new sections in the bill, rather than the more usual strikeout-and-underline style of legislative changes. The bill hadn’t been assigned a bill number by press-time Thursday.
A pre-introduction draft of the bill was released for public comment in late May, and during that time stakeholders were asked to submit written comments. Additional changes were made in response to the comments, but planned workshops in Hilo and Kona couldn’t be held because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy, chairwoman of the Committee on Public Works and Mass Transit, said a streamlined code can help the county’s economy bounce back more quickly from the COVID-19 downturn.
“Re-working the building permit process will help to pull our economy out of this COVID-19 depression, while reducing plan review time and ensuring up-to-date construction standards,” Lee Loy said in a press release.