Page 10 - Builder Brief August 2021 Issue

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
REGULATIONS MATTER
Your Involvement Makes a Difference
Did you know that your leadership team is actively engaged in monitoring and participating in regulatory processes at the local, state, and federal levels? We all want a strong regulatory environment for the homebuilding and remodeling industry, but we also firmly believe that the local nature of homebuilding, residential remodeling and construction is much better suited for county/municipal level regulations and not regulations imposed by federal agencies.
Municipal and county governments are much more in tune with our local market conditions, local land use regulations, building practices and housing needs for San Antonio and our surrounding communities. Too often, builders are subjected to multiple levels of oversight like stormwater controls set by the Environmental Protections Agency (EPA). Stormwater controls are regulated by state and federal agencies along with cities who have broad power and discretion to adopt their own local stormwater programs. This means that our builder, developer, and remodeler members must address stormwater runoff from their active building and remodeling sites with three levels of the government.
A new study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) highlights the cost of regulation to the residential construction industry. The study breaks down the regulatory costs assessed into costs attributable to regulation during development and regulation during construction. Together they account for 23.8 percent in the cost of a new home in 2021. What is alarming is that regulatory costs continue to increase dramatically, and they rose a whopping 10.9 percent in the last five (5) years.
Why does this matter? In 2019 and 2020, legislation was introduced in Washington that would allow the federal Department of Energy (DOE) the power to set energy-saving targets for the national building codes. While NAHB and our allies were successful in keeping the language out of the legislation to allow DOE this overreaching authority, there were better approaches to allow builders to demonstrate compliance and cost saving measures too.
Last year, special interest groups within the International Code Council (ICC) worked to amend the building codes that would severely impact the residential construction industry. The changes that the ICC proposed for the 2021 Energy Code would have increased the cost of a new home in San Antonio by more than $7,000.
We believe that the market driven approach to regulation is the best approach and will allow for the flexibility needed to take into consideration costs and desirability under varied conditions. We are fortunate that the City of San Antonio’s elected leadership and City staff within the Development Services Department work diligently to simplify and streamline requirements for our members.
Join Shad Schmid, Tim Pruski, Joe Leos and members of the Government Affairs leadership team at 1:00pm on Tuesday, August
KRISTI SUTTERFIELD
17th for our next joint meeting with San Antonio’s Development Services Department division (DSD) team leaders as we look to the adoption of the 2021 International Building Codes later this year. Check the September Builder Brief for code classes that we will co-host with the City of San Antonio in late October and November.
Thank you for being a GSABA member. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events.
Warm regards,
10 AUGUST 2021 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION