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Biloxi staff urge adopting updated building and fire codes to protect insurance ratings and reflect new technology
Summary
City staff recommended adopting updated building and fire codes to align with newer construction technology and to maintain favorable ratings for flood insurance and building-department scoring; council members asked questions and staff said the updates also factor into the Community Rating System for the National Flood Insurance Program.
City staff recommended that Biloxi adopt the newer editions of the International Building Code and the International Fire Code to reflect construction-technology changes and to preserve municipal ratings that affect insurance costs.
A staff speaker explained that building codes are updated periodically to account for new technology and that adopting the latest codes helps the city’s building department rating and the Community Rating System (CRS) participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. “One of the reasons that we should encourage the adoption of these codes is that there's always new technology coming out…,” the speaker said.
Staff noted the International Building Code is updated frequently (the transcript references adoption of the 2024 edition) and the International Fire Code updates on a six-year cycle (the transcript references moving from the 2014 edition to the 2020 edition). Officials said adopting the codes can reduce insurance costs and improve the city’s mitigation rating; fire-department requests were included in the draft changes sent to the council.
Councilmembers asked for clarification about the city’s current rating level and how recent formula changes altered the score; staff said the city’s position was mid ranked and that a new formula contributed to a lower tier than expected. Chief Miller confirmed the fire-department updates had been coordinated with staff. The transcript records discussion and a call for questions; no final adoption vote for these specific code updates appears in the provided excerpt.
