The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Public hearing and ordinance review on September 3
[ By Kendra Walker ]The town of Mt. Crested Butte may soon adopt the 2021 International Building Codes, as the town council plans to hold a public hearing and review the second reading of the code adoption ordinance at its September 3 meeting. The council approved the first reading of the ordinance during its August 6 meeting.
The codes are updated by the International Code Council (ICC) every three years to allow for new construction methods and techniques to be incorporated into the codes. The Town is currently operating under the adopted 2015 ICC codes, and it is typical for municipalities to adopt the new codes every three to six years. Gunnison County, the City of Gunnison and the Town of Crested Butte have all recently adopted the 2021 codes.
“It is helpful to architects, design professionals and contractors for all the local jurisdictions to be on the same codes,” said community development director Neal Starkebaum in a memo to the council. “The community development department finds that the safety, health and general welfare of the public is best served by adopting the most up to date and modern building codes with appropriate amendments.”
Municipalities often amend the adopted codes, with appropriate amendments, based upon their elevation, climate, snow loading and other local needs and goals, and the council reviewed the codes updates and amendments in two work sessions earlier this year.
The 2021 International Building Codes also includes the adoption of the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the Colorado Model Solar + Electric Ready Code, as required by the state of Colorado. The adoption requires solar and electric ready code amendments for residential and commercial buildings to be prepared for future solar and future transition to electric vehicles during new construction and major renovations. Additionally, this requires all new builds to be electric ready, where all fossil fuel (combustion) appliances are required to have the physical spacing and electric capacity to be replaced by electric appliances.
Should the council adopt the 2021 ICC codes, town staff recommends they become effective on January 3, 2025, to allow applicants, design professionals and the contractor community time to adapt to the new codes.
“Is four months enough time to get everybody the word?” asked councilmember Dwayne Lehnertz.
Starkebaum said he didn’t anticipate the timing being an issue, noting that the building community was made aware of the town’s direction earlier this year. “We’ve had those conversations,” he said. “There are a lot of architects, contractors and designers already on the 2021 codes.”
“In the new year, we typically get designs and permit applications in February or March,” added town manager Carlos Velado, noting that anyone currently in the process this year won’t have to change anything. “I don’t think it really sets a whole lot of people back.”
