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Building Code Council committee says no statewide rulemaking now after debate over side‑yard access
Summary
A Building Code Council special committee discussed a petition on side‑yard setbacks and emergency access, debated 3‑foot paths vs. 5‑foot turning radii and pavement/impervious‑surface tradeoffs, and voted to have staff send a response and not pursue immediate statewide rulemaking.
The Building Code Council’s special committee on side‑yard setbacks met to consider a petition seeking emergency rulemaking and, after extended discussion of access for emergency responders, voted to direct staff to prepare a response to the proponent and recommended no immediate state rulemaking.
Committee members spent the bulk of the meeting weighing competing goals: protecting emergency access to rear entrances and keeping requirements flexible enough to preserve recent state goals to increase housing density. Tom Young described recent state laws ‘‘to get more housing built’’ and warned that allowing as many as six units per lot increases the number of narrow access corridors between structures. ‘‘We should try to target’’ minimum usable access, he said, but…
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