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Prospect Heights council holds first readings to modernize building codes and flood rules
Summary
At its Oct. 27 meeting, the Prospect Heights City Council held first readings on updating building codes to the 2024 ICC edition, revising the fines-and-fee schedule, and amending floodplain permitting rules; all items return for second reading Nov. 10.
The Prospect Heights City Council on Oct. 27 heard first readings of three related measures to update the city’s building, fee and floodplain rules.
Dan, a city staff presenter, told council the city remains on the 2012 edition of the International Code Council model codes and that bringing the city to the 2024 edition would improve building safety and help the municipality’s ISO building code effectiveness rating, which can lower residents’ insurance rates. "This will also help us too when it comes to the national flood insurance program and our community ratings score," Dan said, adding the updates would put Prospect Heights among local leaders using the most current codes.
Dan also explained proposed language changes to move dollar amounts out of multiple code sections into a central fines-and-fee schedule so that future fee adjustments would not require amending the building-code text. "If a fee gets changed at a future date, we don't have to go and amend the building codes," Dan said.
On flood control, staff said their VeriRisk evaluator recommended removing a code section referencing mobile-home parks — a land use not present in the city — because that section lowered the city’s score under the building code effectiveness grading schedule. Staff said removing the reference would improve the Community Rating System score tied to federal flood-insurance discounts.
All three items were presented as first readings; no votes were taken. The measures are scheduled for second readings at the Nov. 10 meeting. Staff invited residents with questions to contact Dan or to review printed code sets on file or the ICC website.
The council packet lists the building-code update as O 25-70, the fines-and-fee language changes as O 25-22, and the flood-plain permitting amendments as O 25-23. The ordinance texts were not adopted at the Oct. 27 meeting; the council explicitly noted no action tonight because these were first readings.
