John Scarffe, Nederland.  The Nederland Board of Trustees adopted updates to the Town’s building codes during a regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18, 2016 at the Nederland Community Center. The Board also began working on updated sign codes, reflecting a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Town Administrator Alisha Reis introduced an ordinance to update the Town’s building codes to the 2012 International Building Codes. “This item has been around for a long time,” Reis said.

Updating from the current 2006 codes to the 2012 codes has been considered by all of the Town’s advisory boards and has been studied by a task force including representatives of all the trades working together to produce a six-page document that makes up the recommendations for the update, Reis said.

“The Town has been considering updating to newer building codes since 2012. The Town’s adopted building codes are the 2006 International Code Council suite of codes.” Starting in 2012, the Board and the Planning Commission began considering updating to the 2012 codes.

At its February 18, 2014, meeting, the Board referred the issue for study by a task force of building contractors and related professionals. The Mayor’s Task Force on Building Code Updates reviewed all of the updated building codes and issued recommendations to the Board on July 15, 2014.

The Board accepted these recommendations and referred them to the Nederland Planning Process (NPP) by the Board of Zoning Adjustment, Planning Commission and the Sustainability Advisory Board, in addition to continuing public review. Town staff received the last of these reviews in February 2015 and presented them to the Board.

At the August 24, 2016 work session, the Trustees identified this as something they wanted to get done, Reis said. The ordinance was re- introduced to the Board at its September 20th meeting and set for public hearing.

The Sustainability Advisory Board discussed updating the building codes at its May 2016 meeting to take advantage of advances in energy efficiency techniques, according to background. “At re-introduction of the attached ordinance to update the building codes, Town staff recommended approval of the 2012 codes at this time, given that Town permitting staff is trained on the 2012 version, and building officials are all up-to-date on these.” Staff recommended the Town undertake updating to the 2015 codes over the next couple of years.

A few key points of the changes between the 2006 codes and the 2012 codes follow.

Change back to permit requirement for accessory buildings (e.g. sheds) at 120 square feet instead of 200 square feet.

Increased lighting efficiency requirements in energy code.

Whole-house mechanical ventilation requirements.

Solar panel systems added to residential code.

Residential fire sprinklers.

Permit requirement for fences increased to 7-foot height instead of 6-foot height, to allow for decorative posts, etc.

New section detailing deck construction.

Town staff recommended an effective date of January 1, 2017, with outreach conducted to builders and the general community between October and January, continuing toward the traditional start of the building season in April and May.

Reis told the Board that everything is in place for the building code update. Trustee Kevin Mueller said that 120 square feet was too small of a minimum for sheds and made a motion that it should be changed to the previous 200 square feet. The Board approved by raising hands.

Trustee Topher Donahue requested that passive solar codes from 2015 be included. Reis said some additional work on mapping solar aspect is needed prior to making this point a requirement, though staff has been working with builders to do so voluntarily and will continue to do so. “We have discussed that for the last two years.”

The Board approved the ordinance updating to the 2012 building codes. The Board also discussed an ordinance to update the Town Sign Code in light of the Reed v. Gilbert decision.

“Due to the earlier U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision, Reed v. Gilbert, the Town is reviewing its current sign code.” The Nederland Planning Commission reviewed this issue on September 28, 2016, and voted to forward the sign code, with revisions, to the Board of Trustees.

After a full review of the code, several changes have been suggested and several questions need to be posed to the Board for consideration. Town Attorney Carmen Beery said she had questions about how the Board wants the sign code to read going forward.

“The recent U.S. court decision concerning sign codes is marking a true shift on how First Amendment rights will be read going forward,” Beery said. The First Amendment allows some regulation of speech based on content if it is viewpoint neutral.

The Supreme Court did a 180-degree turn, Beery said. “Any kind of content-based regulations are prohibited. It does mark a significant shift. We will see this reverberate in a number of different ways.”

Beery provided the Board with a draft of the ordinance with content-neutral codes. “We have to eliminate content but add back a resolution that focuses on the location of the sign, etc.,” Beery said.  After discussion about flashing signs and murals, Beery said she will come back to the Board with language for the ordinance, and a public hearing will need to be scheduled for that.

Mayor Kristopher Larsen said staff should reach out to the Nederland Downtown Development Authority on this and come back in January or February with the revised version. (Originally published in the October 27, 2016 print version of The Mountain-Ear.)