—Seattle to move ahead with nonresidential 2009 Seattle Energy Code
On June 11, 2010, the Washington State Building Code Council (WSBCC) voted to delay the effective date of the 2009 Washington State Energy Code (WSEC) until at least October 29, 2010. There was no change in the text of the 2009 WSEC that the WSBCC had previously adopted on November 20, 2009. Copies of the 2009 WSEC can be purchased from the Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO) at (360) 628-8669 or through the WABO website, www.wabo.org.
The WSBCC website indicates that public hearings will be held on September 10, 2010 and October 15, 2010 regarding a possible new effective date for the 2009 WSEC. This date could be as early as October 29, 2010 (the end of the current WSBCC emergency rule) to as late as April 1, 2011. For further information on the effective date of the 2009 WSEC, visit the WSBCC website, www.sbcc.wa.gov.
In response to the WSBCC actions, DPD held a fourteenth public review meeting on June 21, 2010 to discuss options for the 2009 Seattle Energy Code. At the end of the discussion, there was a strong consensus to move ahead with adoption of the 2009 Seattle Energy Code now, using the 2009 Washington State Energy Code as the base document.
DPD has developed an ordinance that is currently being reviewed by the law department. The next step will be for DPD to forward recommendations to the Mayor, most likely in July. City Council consideration would occur after that, likely in July or August. If the ordinance were to be approved by the Seattle City Council and signed by the Mayor in September, the ordinance itself would be effective in October. It is possible that there will be some additional grace period where projects would be allowed to use either the old or new versions of the code.
For nonresidential spaces, the intent is to have the end of any grace period for the 2009 Seattle Energy Code to coincide with other Seattle code updates. Consequently, applicants should pay attention to the progress of the Seattle Building Code ordinance. Any time within the grace period for the Seattle Building Code would likely be a safe time to submit a complete building permit application if you wanted to have a project vested to the 2006 Seattle Energy Code.
For residential spaces, the 2009 WSEC requirements would take effect on the date specified by the Washington State Building Code Council. As noted above, this could be anytime from as early as October 29, 2010 to as late as April 1, 2011.
City staff thanks everyone for their participation and contributions to the 2009 Seattle Energy Code. For further information, contact:
John Hogan
(206) 386-9145
john.hogan@seattle.gov