Advocates urge safety first in building codes

broad coalition of New York City councilmembers, firefighters, housing advocates and building trades members rallied on the steps of City Hall this past Wednesday. They were there to urge passage of a new Local Law that would install the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code as the new – and more stringent - building code for the City. This goes against the desires of the Bloomberg Administration, which wants the less-strict International Building Codes (IBC) implemented.

As the bill’s prime sponsor, Council Member Robert Jackson, explained, the City is in the process of selecting a building code that will determine the level of safety that all of New York’s buildings must meet. This is an extremely important decision that cannot be taken lightly, because for firefighters and other first responders especially, the right safety code can literally mean the difference between life and death. "We ask firefighters to rush into buildings during emergency situations, but the right code could help prevent emergencies from occurring in the first place," stated Jackson. "We owe it to them and to the people of New York to choose a model that will provide the highest level of safety for everyone. We cannot select a code just because it's cheapest for builders. Cheap is not necessarily safe."

Jackson further explained that the NFPA is a non-profit organization that has developed construction safety codes for many decades, codes that successfully blend a safety-first focus with the need to maintain reasonable building costs. NFPA develops its codes through an open process that allows input from all interested parties during the development stage. All concerned stakeholders – tenants, firefighters, union building trades workers and everyone else involved in the building industry who wishes to take part - come together and thrash out the decisions until they arrive at a consensus about what is the best for the entire group.

Also addressing the issue was Gloria Waldron, who hails from Trinidad and is now the President of New York ACORN, a membership organization of over 25,000 low and moderate income New Yorkers. "We are here as tenants and homeowners who are threatened with the possibility of having the buildings that we live in made legally unsafe and hazardous to our family's health," she stated.

Waldron went on to say that ACORN believes that the decision as to what building code is selected "should not be based on what code is most convenient for builders or architects. Our model code should be the one that offers the people of the City the greatest degree of safety and the best opportunity to be heard when the code is being created." That, Waldron declared, is why ACORN supports the adoption of NFPA 5000 model building code. "With it, our neighborhoods will be safer places tomorrow and 15 to 20 years from now."

Among the other supporters of the NFPA codes are the Uniformed Firefighters Association, Local 94; the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Local 854; the American Healthcare Association; and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 3. As Jimmy Hart, representative of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, stated:

"The health, safety, and welfare of the children, seniors, and working families of New York City is of the utmost importance. That is why the Plumbers, Local 1, and the Enterprise Association of Steamfitters, Local 638, and its 13,000 members are enthusiastically supportive of the superior consensus process that is the trademark of the NFPA 5000." And referring to the building code that the Bloomberg Administration is pushing, Hart said, "Time and time again, the IBC has proven they cannot live up to the same standards."

Implementation of the NFPA codes is already supported by a majority of City’s 51 councilmembers. Among the bill’s co-sponsors are Charles Barron, Tracy Boyland, Leroy Comrie, Lewis Fidler, Helen Foster, James Gennaro, Vincent Gentile, Letitia James, John Liu, Miguel Martinez, Annabel Palma, Bill Perkins, Kendall Stewart and Al Vann.

Councilmembers are calling on the Administration to allow fair hearings to weigh the pros and cons of the competing legislation. At this time of heightened sensitivity surrounding building safety, that is certainly a reasonable request.