This article originally appeared at JBartlett.org.
Home building is tough throughout New England, but Massachusetts gives its builders an advantage that builders in New Hampshire don’t enjoy. Massachusetts uses a uniform building code statewide. Builders there know exactly what every town’s code is because they’re all the same.
That’s not so in New Hampshire, where municipalities can tack their own rules onto the state building code. This random patchwork of building codes raises costs and slows projects.
“It’s just all over the place,” builder Matt Blanc of Charlestown said. “Just getting things standardized would be huge for us.”
The local requirements themselves can add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home or apartment building. That can be a particular problem for small contractors.
“Some communities will require a full-blown commercial fire alarm system in an apartment with two units in it,” Blanc said. “That could be a $10,000-$20,000 cost.”
More frustrating are the surprises and delays. Towns can adopt new codes anytime, and builders don’t necessarily find out about them until construction has begun.
“We get into building stuff and the plans are approved, and then we’re ready for our first inspection and all of a sudden we’ll find out that local jurisdictions have some other requirements that we haven’t done and we didn’t even know about it,” Blanc said. “It causes project delays.”
And every delay adds to the cost of a project.
“When we have guys standing around not producing, it gets very, very expensive in a hurry,” Blanc said.
Even small builders can have projects in multiple towns at once. The variations can be a planning nightmare.
“When you have it for 10-12 projects going on, it really adds up,” Blanc said.
That’s why New Hampshire builders are keeping a close eye on House Bill 428 and Senate Bill 94, companion bills that would forbid municipal amendments to the state building code.
SB 94 was retained in the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee this week in the hope that the Senate would agree to pass HB 428. The House amended HB 428 one to allow local variations in administrative procedures, but not the technical substance of the code.
Building codes are not the same as land use regulations (zoning rules). A building code is a set of minimum standards for building construction. Local governments often adopt amendments that set higher standards than the state code. And those aren’t always for safety reasons. Extreme energy efficiency standards are a trendy local code enhancement which can push already high home prices out of reach even for upper-middle-class families.
“It tends to be things that some member of code enforcement heard about at some convention and thought it was a great idea and the town implemented it,” Blanc said.
Because the purpose of building codes is to establish minimum safety standards, the case for local boutique additions is not strong. A building code is a highly technical set of regulations of structural and electrical engineering. Allowing local variations does not enhance individual freedom, but limits it. The only enhancements localities can make are additional restrictions on top of basic safety standards.
As Matt Mayberry, executive director of the New Hampshire Home Builders Association, said in a Senate hearing this month, “I put my trust in 424 individuals to make those policy decisions for our state of New Hampshire versus a five-member town council or select board, who may be more socially driven than policy driven.”
The National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Association of Home Builders estimate that regulations account for 40.6 percent of the cost of multifamily housing and that changes in building codes in the last decade are the single largest contributor, accounting for 11.1 percent of costs.
Switching to a statewide standard building code would lower costs and speed development times for both residential and commercial development. And it would eliminate one of the advantages Massachusetts has over New Hampshire.
