Lancaster County adopts 2021 building codes and updates electrical, mechanical fee schedules

The Lancaster County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously June 16 to adopt a package of updated building codes — including the 2021 International Residential, Building, Existing Building, Mechanical and Fuel Gas codes, the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code, the 2023 National Electrical Code and the 2018 International Energy Code — and to approve updated electrical and mechanical fee schedules.

David Carey, director of the county Planning and Development Services Department, told the board the county’s interlocal agreement with the City of Lincoln requires the county to adopt the codes the city adopts. "Out in the field when somebody comes in for a permit and contractors are out there doing a job and getting an inspection done, they will not see anything different," Carey said, explaining the action records that practice on the county side.

Carey said the codes were reviewed by trade-specific task forces of local contractors and professionals who worked through potential local amendments and recommended adoption. He also described the fee updates as intended mainly to provide clarity — and in some categories a reduction — on when specific electrical and mechanical fees apply. Carey added the Accela permitting-system migration delayed implementation until now so the changes could be made once while moving the county permitting platform to the cloud.

The board called the roll and recorded unanimous votes for both the code-adoption resolution and the separate resolution adopting the updated mechanical and electrical fee schedules. The votes take effect immediately on the county side; staff said permit applicants will notice no practical change because the county has been applying the city-adopted codes in practice.

Why this matters: adopting the codes standardizes life-safety and construction standards across Lincoln and Lancaster County, simplifying compliance for contractors who work both inside and outside city limits and putting county fees and permit language in a recently updated permitting system.

What’s next: staff will implement the fee schedule updates in Accela and proceed with administrative steps to publish the new schedules on the county website.