Floor height issue expands

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

— Whether or not building permits may be issued to remodel homes with less than an 18-inch ground clearance was a hotly-debated topic at meetings of the Code Enforcement Committee and the Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday.

The issue reportedly has come up because of a denial of building permits to remodel older Gentry homes with clearances between the ground and floor joists of less than 12 inches.

According to city building inspector David McNair and Mayor Wes Hogue, the policy in place which has been followed for years and is based on city code is to not issue building permits for new construction if access under the home will be less than 18 inches and not to issue the permits for major remodels of existing homes if access beneath the home is not at least 12 inches. The requirement does not apply to homes built on concrete slabs.

If a home does not meet the above requirement and must be jacked up and placed on a new foundation, a minimum of 18-inches access is required, McNair and Hogue said.

Because numerous older homes in Gentry were built on foundations with less clearance, the issue arose when property owners sought building permits to renovate and remodel them and learnedof the clearance requirement. Some homeowners have complied and raised up the homes. For others, the expense of doing so made it cost prohibitive to proceed with remodeling plans.

A proposed ordinance to make the above policy city code was reviewed by the Gentry Planning and Zoning Commission and tabled until the city’s fire marshal - Fire Chief Vester Cripps -could be present to discuss how he would enforce city fire code regarding access under buildings.

The proposed ordinance would require all new construction to have the bottom edgeof floor joists “situated not less than 18 inches higher than the finished ground level of the under-floor crawl space.”

In the case of remodeling existing structures, the ordinance would require the bottom edge of floor joists to be “situated not less than 12 inches higher than the finished ground level of the under-floor crawl space.” This, however, must also have the approval of the fire chief, the proposed ordinance states.

If floor joists are lower than 12 inches, the ordinance would require the home to be raised up and meet the full 18-inch requirement for new construction.

“This is the most liberal interpretation of the law we could possibly do in the state of Arkansas,” said Hogue. “This is as liberal as it gets.”

Commission member Mike Parks asked how it is that Fayetteville and numerous other cities could allow people to remodel older homes without raising them up.

“I think a person who buys a home in Gentry and wants to remodel it should be able to do so,” Parks said.

“We don’t have Appendix J,” commission memberJim Kooistra said. “The state removed it and the city ordinance removed it. If we had Appendix J, we could do this,” he said.

Appendix J of the Fire Prevention Code includes special provisions for existing structures,but the state Fire Marshal’s office removed Appendices A-L from the Fire Prevention Code.

The 18-inch access requirement (R408.3 of the Residential Fire Code) was inserted into the code by the Arkansas Fire Marshal, Kooistra said, explainingthat the reason must be for fire-fighting access and not for mechanical needs because the code deals with mechanical access in another location and requires even greater access clearances under structures for mechanical purposes.

Commission member David Nelson said he certainly didn’t want to see anything less than a 12-inch crawl space under a home.

“Instead of raising up some of these old houses, they need to be raised and demolished,” Nelson said.

Council member Janie Parks said she would rather have David (McNair) interpret the code application “than have it in black and white to where a person couldn’t shovel out two shovels of dirt to get legal.”

Cripps said in a brief telephone interview on Friday that cities can make their requirements more stringentthan the state, but not less than what is required in state law.

“We would expect local jurisdictions to follow the fire code,” said Arkansas fire marshal, Lieutenant Lindsey Williams, by telephone on Monday. “Local jurisdictions can’t have provisions less stringent than the (state) fire code,” he said. “They cannot pass ordinances in conflict with the code.”

Williams would not make a statement regarding a specific situation without request from a city official or property owner. He did indicate it would be hard to require property owners to jack up their houses but said any new construction or room additions should meet current state code.

The city of Gentry adopted the 2002 Fire prevention code and has not officially adopted the current 2007 code.

“The law doesn’t require local jurisdictions to adopt the (newer code) by ordinance,” Williams said. “They are not in violation if they haven’t adopted the 2007 fire prevention code, but they do have to follow it,” he said, explaining that the 2002 code was in effect from Jan. 1, 2003, until Aug. 1, 2008, at which time the newer code went into effect.

News, Pages 1 on 03/24/2010