Legislators should adopt a statewide building and energy code this week and make enforcement mandatory, allowing some leeway for small towns that do not have code enforcement already.
The bill is facing opposition from the Maine Municipal Association, which sees it as an unfunded mandate, and from some legislators who believe the energy efficiency standards go too far.
The association is not wrong. This is an unfunded mandate. It will add to the list of things municipal code enforcement officers and building inspectors have to check. But the new standards included in the code are necessary. They will bring the state closer to licensing building contractors, and it will ensure that buildings in the state are safer and more energy efficient.
The state already has codes for electrical and plumbing work and fire safety. Almost 10 years in the making, the new uniform code would cover everything from snow loads on roofs to the amount of insulation necessary in basements.
Some feel as though that’s going too far. “Do you want to tell people you have to put two rolls of insulation around the basement?” asked Sen. Jonathon Courtney, R-York.
Well, yes, we do. With energy costs higher than ever, developers and contractors shouldn’t be building homes that don’t meet a minimum standard of energy efficiency. According to Sen. Phil Bartlett, D-Gorham, Maine is one of 11 states nationally and the only state in New England not to have an energy efficiency code, which doesn’t make any sense. Maine is one of the coldest states in the country.
This winter should have been enough to convince anyone of the need for these standards. Just last month, roofs collapsed at two schools because of the snow load.
Making enforcement of these codes mandatory will put an extra cost on local government and developers, but these are well-accepted standards across the country. They need to be a part of the cost of construction here, as well as other places. If the standards aren’t mandatory, the state might as well not even have them.
The one place where the Legislature could consider allowing for some leeway is in small towns that have no code enforcement officer. The bill would apply now to towns with more than 2,000 people. That includes approximately 165 towns in Maine, about 80 or 90 of which already enforce a building code.
For those that don’t – likely the smallest of them – the only way to enforce these will simply be to pass on the cost to builders, who would have to pay for the building inspection. Unless the state can provide some sort of regional code inspection service, mandatory enforcement of the uniform code should wait in these areas. With the housing market as bad as it’s been in years, this is the wrong time to be passing on these costs.
Brendan Moran, editor
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