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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0128.112 2010-2012Murashige, Laura GILL 2 70 ( o12. 4 ) PIPWPRG From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: kirstie goin [kirstie.goin @gmail.com] Monday, December 05, 2011 11:45 AM counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us County Building Code amendment Owner - Builders and the Hawaii County Building Code.doc Owner- Builders and the Hawaii ... Please consider this testimony (attached and below) as you amend the Hawaii County Building Code: Please amend the Hawaii County Building Code to exempt all owner- builders of single - family homes on one or more acres of land from any code requirements. Rudolf Miller, founder of the Building Officials Conference of America, stated the purpose of a building code as follows: "The building laws should provide only for such requirements with respect to building construction and closely related matters as are absolutely necessary for the protection of persons who have no voice in the manner of construction or the arrangement of buildings with which they involuntarily come in contact. Thus, when buildings are comparatively small, are far apart, and their use is limited to the owners and builders of them, so that, in case of failure of any kind they are not a source of danger to others, no necessity for building restriction would exist." [Codes and Code Administration. Sanderson, Richard L., 1969, p. 14.] It is the right of every lot owner to design and build a home to satisfy his personal needs, lifestyle, and aesthetic sense. Traditional housing on Hawaii Island consisted of bamboo - framed thatched walls and thatched roofs — adequate to the needs of its residents for thousands of years, but now totally illegal under the current building codes. "If the codes were indeed designed to protect the consumer, it is ludicrous for building departments to intractably hold the letter of the law over those builders who are, in fact, the consumer. In this instance we have the situation of people being `protected' from themselves by government agencies." [The Owner- Builder and the Code: Politics of Building Your Home. Kern, Ken; Kogon, Ted; and Thallon, Rob; 1976, p. 5.] Some regulation may be needed to protect home buyers from unscrupulous contractors or to ensure public safety in high- density areas, but is completely superfluous for owners building their own homes on rural properties. Indeed, the original codes applied only to large cities, and many States still exempt rural areas from any building code requirements. The first national building code was written in 1905 by a group representing the insurance industry. "Other self - interest groups were soon to detect the advantage of legislative controls on building construction. In 1927, a group calling themselves `building officials' (made up for the most part of building materials suppliers and manufacturers, labor organizers, and other building professionals) came together to prepare and to sponsor legislative enactment of the Uniform Building Code. This building code system, or non - system, has been under constant criticism for more than fifty years." [The Owner - Builder and the Code: Politics of Building Your Home. Kern, Ken; Kogon, Ted; and Thallon, Rob; 1976, pp. 16 -17.] A report by the Senate Committee on Reconstruction and Production stated that building code requirements are a source of unnecessarily high construction costs. Additional criticisms include lack of flexibility regarding materials and methods of construction. In 1968, the National Commission on Urban Problems concluded: "In brief, the facts disclosed by the exhaustive inquiries of this Commission at local, State and National levels...shows unmistakably that alarms sounded over the past years about the buildin code 1 Comm. No. / Z Ref. To: W /2C. Ref. Dote DF 6 20l'M situation have been justified. If anything, the case has been understated." [Building the American City. Report of the National Commission on Urban Problems to the Congress and to the President of the United States, 1968, p. 266.] Building code requirements place an unnecessary burden on lot owners attempting to provide cost - effective housing for their families. Therefore, owner - builders of single - family residences on one acre or more of land should be exempt from Hawaii County's building code. 2 Owner - Builders and the Hawaii County Building Code Please amend the Hawaii County Building Code to exempt all owner - builders of single - family homes on one or more acres of land from any code requirements. Rudolf Miller, founder of the Building Officials Conference of America, stated the purpose of a building code as follows: "The building laws should provide only for such requirements with respect to building construction and closely related matters as are absolutely necessary for the protection of persons who have no voice in the manner of construction or the arrangement of buildings with which they involuntarily come in contact. Thus, when buildings are comparatively small, are far apart, and their use is limited to the owners and builders of them, so that, in case of failure of any kind they are not a source of danger to others, no necessity for building restriction would exist. "1 It is the right of every lot owner to design and build a home to satisfy his personal needs, lifestyle, and aesthetic sense. Traditional housing on Hawaii Island consisted of bamboo - framed thatched walls and thatched roofs — adequate to the needs of its residents for thousands of years, but now totally illegal under the current building codes. "If the codes were indeed designed to protect the consumer, it is ludicrous for building departments to intractably hold the letter of the law over those builders who are, in fact, the consumer. In this instance we have the situation of people being `protected' from themselves by government agencies."2 Some regulation may be needed to protect home buyers from unscrupulous contractors or to ensure public safety in high - density areas, but is completely superfluous for owners building their own homes on rural properties. Indeed, the original codes applied only to large cities, and many States still exempt rural areas from any building code requirements. The first national building code was written in 1905 by a group representing the insurance industry. "Other self - interest groups were soon to detect the advantage of legislative controls on building construction. In 1927, a group calling themselves `building officials' (made up for the most part of building materials suppliers and manufacturers, labor organizers, and other building professionals) came together to prepare and to sponsor legislative enactment of the Uniform Building Code. This building code system, or non - system, has been under constant criticism for more than fifty years. "3 A report by the Senate Committee on Reconstruction and Production stated that building code requirements are a source of unnecessarily high construction costs. Additional criticisms include lack of flexibility regarding materials and methods of construction. In 1968, the National Commission on Urban Problems concluded: "In brief, the facts disclosed by the exhaustive inquiries of this Commission at local, State and National levels... shows unmistakably that alarms sounded over the past years about the building code situation have been justified. If anything, the case has been understated. "4 Building code requirements place an unnecessary burden on lot owners attempting to provide cost - effective housing for their families. Therefore, owner - builders of single - family residences on one acre or more of land should be exempt from Hawaii County's building code. Codes and Code Administration. Sanderson, Richard L., 1969, p. 14. 2 The Owner- Builder and the Code: Politics of Building Your Home. Kern, Ken; Kogon, Ted; and Thallon, Rob; 1976, p. 5. 3 Ibid, pp. 16 -17. 4Building the American City. Report of the National Commission on Urban Problems to the Congress and to the President of the United States, 1968, p. 266.