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Clive council adopts updated building and fire code after debate over wind-load standard
Summary
Council adopted the city’s updated building and fire code on final reading after councilmembers and a resident debated lowering the residential ultimate wind-speed design standard from 115 mph to 110 mph; staff said the change follows the International Code Council/ASCE hazard tool.
Clive — The City Council adopted its updated building and fire code on final reading Thursday after a debate about the residential wind‑speed design standard.
At issue was a staff recommendation to set the residential ‘‘ultimate wind speed’’ at 110 miles per hour, down from the 115‑mph benchmark some residents and neighboring jurisdictions have used. Greg Jameson, a Clive property owner, urged the council to keep the 115‑mph standard, saying it aligns with a number of metro-area cities and helps reduce storm and insurance risk: "Do we continue leading or do we take a step back?" he asked the council.
City staff, represented in the discussion by Brian (city staff), said the recommended 110‑mph figure was derived from the International Code Council and the ASCE hazard tool used in the 2024 code cycle and that many jurisdictions are reevaluating wind loads as they adopt the new code. "When we adopt these codes, we look at the baseline code for our community," Brian said. He explained that a 5‑mph change can affect allowed materials and construction details for typical residential work.
Councilmembers exchanged questions about homeowner costs, insurance implications and regional consistency. One councilmember said the change could lower construction costs in some cases; another noted that some nearby cities have already adopted lower figures, which gave her pause about moving unilaterally to a higher standard.
After discussion the council voted to adopt ordinance number 1174 on final reading. The clerk announced the vote as "4 2 1" and declared the ordinance enacted. (The transcript records the vote as announced by the clerk; the ordinance was declared enacted.)
What happens next: The ordinance adoption implements the updated municipal building and fire code; staff said the city will continue to monitor state and national code developments and the hazard‑tool outputs that inform wind‑load calculations.
Note on naming and transcript errors: The transcript used some variant spellings (for example, "Clyde" in a few places) that were corrected in this report to the established local usage, "Clive."
