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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/17/2000 - Regular Minutes - Construction Board of Adjustments MINUTES CONSTRUCTION BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS AND APPEALS 17 July 2000 6:00 P.M. City Hall Council Chambers MEMBERS PRESENT: Vice Chairman George McLean, Board Members: Robert Mooney, Kevin Kuddes, Glenn Thomas,Alternate Mark Clayton MEMBERS ABSENT: Chairman Dan Sears, Member: Frank Cox, Alternate Shannon Schunicht STAFF PRESENT: Building Official Lance Simms, Building Plans Examiner Carl Warren,Assistant City Attorney Meridith Ladd, Fire Marshal Jon Mies, Building Inspector Mario DeLeon, Staff Assistant Maria E. Brewer AGENDA ITEM NO. 1: Call meeting to order The meeting was called to order by Vice Chairman George McLean AGENDA ITEM NO. 2: Hear visitors for items not on agenda. No visitors were present. AGENDA ITEM NO. 3: Approve minutes from Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals Meeting on Monday, June 19, 2000 Robert Mooney motioned to approve the minutes, Kevin Kuddes seconded the motion, and the Board concurred, (5-0). AGENDA ITEM NO. 4: Public hearing for the consideration of Variance 00-010 to request a variance to Appendix 1, Amendment 14, to the 1994 Standard Building code. The applicant is Mike Record, representative for the City of College Station. George McLean asked staff to brief the board on the request. Jon Mies, Fire Marshal, took the floor and explained that the variance was for the Northgate Parking Garage that the City of College Station is proposing to build. He continued that the City of College Station has an ordinance amendment that requires any structure over two stories to be sprinklered. Jon added that the building is a completely non-combustible type construction. Jon said staff is recommending approval based on variances that have been approved for the parking garages for the Traditions dorm and the Callaway House. He stated that he recommend approval with same recommendations that the City had on the two previous variances. George McLean opened the public hearing. "CONSTRUCTION BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS AND APPEALS July 17, 2000- Minutes No one present chose to speak. George McLean closed the public hearing. Robert Mooney motioned to grant the variance. Glenn Thomas seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously, (5-0). AGENDA ITEM NO. 5: Public hearing and consideration of a recommendation to City Council concerning the adoption of the 2000 International Plumbing Code,with modifications to Appendix 5, Chapter 3, College Station Code of Ordinances, following a presentation from Lance Simms, Building Official. George McLean asked staff to brief the board on the request. Lance Simms, Building Official, took the floor and introduced the 2000 International Plumbing Code (1PC). He stated that the City of College Station is currently working under the 1994 Standard Plumbing Code (SPC), Lance discussed some of the background of how the 2000 IPC was developed. He stated that the first edition of the IPC was published in 1995 but he decided not to pursue adoption until the complete package of International Codes was available. Lance stated that this year is the first year that the complete family of International Codes is available for adoption. He gave the board members a handout that outlined some of the changes that are represented in the 2000 IPC. He stated that Mario DeLeon, Building Inspector, was present to help with technical questions. Lance stated that overall he felt like this code was less restrictive than our current plumbing code. He stated that everything in the code was derived through committees and engineering principles and not arbitrarily placed in the code. Lance referenced the handout and stated that chapter one contained a provision requiring the plumbing systems in buildings or houses moved into the city to be treated as new construction. He continued by saying that this means that an existing building moved into the city may have to replace the existing plumbing if it did not meet the current code. George McLean asked if that would apply to mobile homes? Lance Simms responded by saying that mobile homes have different guidelines. He added that the federal government prohibits the City of College Station from looking at anything inside a manufactured home built after 1976. Lance added that we have zoning regulations that control the location of manufactured homes and we require a licensed contractor be used to connect the plumbing and electrical. But, he continued,we can not legally go inside and check the internal plumbing like we can on a house. Lance continued his review of the 2000 1PC and pointed out that exempt work was also covered in chapter one. He also said that permit extensions were allowed for 180 days under the 1PC as opposed to 90 days in the current code. Lance stated that the IPC also grants the code official authority to disconnect service utilities in case of emergencies. Lance stated that chapter two is definitions and had no major changes, Lance continued with chapter three (general regulations) and said that the code section regulating the minimum coverage for sewer lines has a blank for the local jurisdiction to provide that number. He said that he believes this is because different climates have different frost depths. Lance said the current plumbing code requires a minimum depth of 12 inches but there have been limited cases where it is difficult to get 12 inches of cover. He continued by stating that our frost depth in this area is four inches, and asked the Board to consider six inches as the minimum cover for sewer lines. Lance said that one important thing to consider is the physical protection of 2 "CONSTRUCTION BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS AND APPEALS July 17, 2000- Minutes the line. Lance concluded the review of chapter three by noting that sanitary facilities for workers were also addressed in the IPC. Lance Simms moved on to chapter four(fixtures, faucets and fixture fittings) and said that the IPC has a table that provides for the minimum number of required bathrooms and fixtures (water closets, lavatories, etc.) for almost any conceivable use. He said the table in the new code is more user friendly than the current code which has caused interpretation problems in the past. Lance continued by saying that the IPC also includes detailed handicap accessibility provisions. He continued by discussing floor drains. He said the current code requires a minimum of three inch drainpipe for floor drains in the slab, Lance said the new code allows for a minimum of two inches. He said he didn't know if this was good or bad, but he assumed the committee in charge of that code section studied it and decided that a two inch drainpipe is acceptable in this situation. Robert Mooney asked if the new plumbing code would be in metric since it was International? He continued by saying some of the metric does not translate well. Lance said every unit of measurement in the new code is listed in both english and metric. Lance then moved to chapter five which governs the installation of water heaters. He said one change in the new code is a requirement that the drain line off the temperature and pressure relief valve must terminate in the same room as the water heater or to an outside location. He continued by saying this is not a major change from the current standard. Lance Simms then moved on to chapter six(water distribution and supply). He said the current plumbing code allow PVC pipe from the meter to a point outside the house before it transitions to copper pipe. He continued that the new code allows PVC to go inside the building up to five feet inside the structure. He added that he felt we needed to look at changing this because some of the soils cause substantial movement and PVC is not very forgiving. The Board and Lance had a brief discussion about PVC piping. Lance continued by discussing the new code requirements for methods of joining supply piping which includes mechanical joints. He added the current code does not recognize mechanical joints, and added that there are many new techniques that the current code doesn't address but the new code does. Lance then said that the new code also has a detailed section on back flow/cross connection protection. He said that this is an effort to insure a clean water supply. Lance Simms moved to chapter seven (sanitary drainage). He said the current code does not allow anything less then two inches for the drainpipe under a slab. Lance continued by saying that the IPC basis the drainpipe size on the fixture demand. He added that the current code has a minimum four inch sewer service requirement but the new code allows for different sizes based on the actual demand. Lance discussed sewer cleanout spacing and said that the IPC extends the minimum spacing from 80 feet to 100 feet. Lance said that chapter eight (indirect/special wastes) did not have any substantial changes. Lance began the review of chapter nine (vents) in the new code. He stated that the IPC allows the main plumbing vent size to be one half of the building drain size where as the current code says the main plumbing vent has to be a minimum of three inches. Lance then moved to chapter ten (interceptors and separators). He said he liked this chapter because of the grease trap provisions. He continued by saying that the current plumbing code states that you will have a grease trap if the plumbing official says you need one. He said that under current policy the City of College Station requires a minimum of a 1000 gallon grease trap in most cases. Lance added that at times this can be costly for someone who doesn't really need a grease trap that large. He said that the new code is very specific and sizes the grease trap size on flow in gallon per minutes that you have through your fixtures. 3 "CONSTRUCTION BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS AND APPEALS July 17, 2000 - Minutes Lance Simms concluded the review of the IPC and stated that he would like to move to the amendments that we have to the plumbing code. He recommended that we keep the first amendment, which addresses situations where sewer service is not available to structures in the city. He said that this amendment allows individuals to get permission to install a private sewer treatment facility that complies with Health department regulations in certain situations. Lance said that this amendment has worked well in the past. Lance continued by reviewing amendment number two. He said that this amendment contains a list of materials that can not be used in College Station. Lance asked the Board to consider removing cross-linked polyethylene from the list so that it can be used as water distribution piping. He reminded the Board that they had seen this product demonstrated at an earlier meeting. Kevin Kuddes said that he knows someone who has used this product in another city and it seems to be working well. Lance added that he did not want to allow plain polyethylene piping but did not object to the cross-linked polyethylene. Lance also added that he would like to allow type M copper for water distribution pipe above the slab only. Robert Mooney asked where galvanized pipe is used for water distribution? Lance said that he hadn't seen it used in the past few years but it was used extensively as water supply piping years ago. Robert Mooney stated that perhaps we should remove it from the list if it is no longer used. Lance said we could recommend that it be added to the list of prohibited materials. After brief discussion, the Board decided to recommend galvanized pipe be added to the list of prohibited materials for water distribution piping. Lance told the Board that the City is looking for another member and that applications will be taken through August 2nd. He asked the Board to help get the word out to people that may be interested in serving. Lance continued by discussing amendment number three. He said that this amendment deals with type M copper pipe and was covered under amendment number two so he recommended that the Board omit this amendment. Lance said that amendment number four deals with sand traps and since this is covered by the new plumbing code he recommended that the Board omit this amendment. Lance said amendment number five addresses the plumbing access panels for bathtubs and recommended that it be left as is. Lance moved on to amendment number six. He said he would like to expand the list of products that can be used under slab to include cross-linked polyethylene and polyethylene/aluminum/polyethylene piping,with the understanding that no joints or connections are allowed under the slab, Lance said that amendment seven was addressed in amendment number two and recommended that it be omitted Lance said that amendment number eight provides for a water supply control valve and recommended leaving it as is. Lance then moved on to amendment number nine, which addresses the minimum sewer line depth. He said the new code has a section that covers this information. He asked the board if they had a chance to decide what depth they wanted to recommend for the sewer line? The board discussed the advantages and disadvantages of six inches versus 12 inches of cover. Glenn Thomas said he would be concerned about the pipe getting hit by a tiller at six inches. The board agreed with him and they decided to stay with the current requirement of 12 inches of cover. 4 "CONSTRUCTION BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS AND APPEALS July 17, 2000- Minutes Lance said that amendment number ten provides for floor drains in laundry rooms and is addressed in the new code. He continued by recommending that the Board omit this amendment. Lance said amendment number eleven addresses a pressure balancing valve that keeps people from being scalded when in the shower if there is a change in the water pressure, He said It includes an exception that excludes one and two family dwellings from the pressure balancing valve requirement. The Board and staff had a lengthy discussion about this issue. The majority of the Board decided to follow the provisions of the IPC, which requires all showers to use the pressure balancing valve. As a result, amendment number eleven will be omitted. Lance said that there was one more item he wanted to discuss with the Board. He said it is an issue that is not currently addressed in the code. He continued by saying that he would like to have an amendment that requires townhouses to have separate water and sewer connections to the main. After a brief discussion, the Board agreed that this was a good idea. Lance said that he would work with the legal department and come up with some acceptable language for the amendment. George McLean closed the public hearing. Glenn Thomas motioned to recommend that the City Council adopt the 2000 1PC with the amendments as we discussed. Kevin Kuddes seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously, (5-0). The meeting was adjourned. APPROVED: Chairman: Dan Sears ATTEST: n f f A vilf" taff Assistant: Marla E. Brewer 5