Trustees review proposed 2021 building-code update; public, builders press for clarifications

Carbondale trustees discussed a bundled update to the town's building codes on March 12, including adoption of the 2021 International Codes, changes to the town's energy requirements, and proposed removal or relocation of parts of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC).

Building official Aaron reviewed major differences between the town’s existing adoption (2009 codes in some cases) and the 2021 codes, including stronger submittal-document requirements, updated deck connection and guardrail standards, tighter residential insulation levels, new duct and ventilation testing, and changed glazing and smoke-alarm rules. Aaron said some commercial insulation requirements fall with the revised climate-zone mapping and that several green-code items have been folded into the energy code or other sections. He proposed removing the town's separate IGCC checklist and incorporating key IGCC items (for example, radon mitigation, a 20% commercial photovoltaic requirement and demolition recycling provisions) into other code sections.

Fire Marshal Carl Oliver told the board Carbondale’s adopted fire code dated to the 1980s and that the fire department is preparing to adopt a modern fire code aligned with the 2021 building code.

Public comment ran nearly an hour and a half. Builders and architects asked for predictable flood and climate-zone rules and urged consistency with other valley jurisdictions. Confluence Architecture (designer Angela Lowry) and local builder Thaddeus Eshelman supported tiered HERS or performance options but said tier 2 compliance methods should not be relaxed because many recent local permits already met tier-2 targets. Fred Mallow of 350 Roaring Fork urged moving further toward eliminating natural gas hookups in new construction; others asked for stronger requirements that rooftop solar be permitted with fewer administrative burdens.

Age Friendly Carbondale requested the board commit to a stakeholder task force to develop universal-design / accessible-housing amendments; trustees said the code update was not the right moment to finalize an accessibility package but encouraged a follow-up process on universal design.

Trustees and staff sought clarification on several items: - Whether the town should adopt Climate Zone 5 or 6 for energy calculations (staff and designers noted national HERS tools default to climate zones and that switching zones affects insulation and HVAC sizing); - How the town's existing REBP rebate and renewable-efficiency fund should be administered and whether program criteria should remain in a code appendix or be managed by an external administrator such as Garfield Clean Energy; - Whether certain administrative provisions now in the code (permitting exemptions for small accessory structures and emergency repair rules) should instead be clarified in the UDC or kept in building chapter 1.

Aaron said he would revise the draft to make where IGCC items landed clearer, to keep tier 1 compliance options broad while retaining tier-2 performance expectations, and to prepare a revised draft for trustees with targeted clarifications. The board directed staff to return in roughly four weeks with a revised package and clearer crosswalks showing where IGCC provisions have been moved, more detail on energy-tier compliance paths, and options for rebate administration. No adoption vote was taken.