Although delivering a safe and healthy building for human occupancy is the respo

Question

Although delivering a safe and healthy building for human occupancy is the responsibility of design and construction professionals, the design and construction of buildings are done within the framework of numerous federal, state, and local laws or constraints. These laws and constraints are aimed at ensuring that public health and safety issues are carefully considered by design and construction professionals in delivering buildings.

Discuss the differences and relationships between the following constraints:

A client is considering building a multistoried office development in a hurricane-prone area in Louisiana. The local building codes require specific features for hurricane protection. Answer the following questions:

Explanation / Answer

A

1. Difference between Building Codes and Construction Standard

Building Regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the safety and health for people in or about those buildings. They also include requirements to ensure that fuel and power is conserved and facilities are provided for people, including those with disabilities, to access and move around inside buildings.

Construction Standard seeks to guide the way our towns, cities and countryside develop. This includes the use of land & buildings, the appearance of buildings, landscaping considerations, highway access and the impact that the development will have on the general environment.

For many types of building work, separate permission under both regimes (separate processes) will be required. For other building work, such as internal alterations, Buildings Regulations approval will probably be needed, but Planning permission may not be. If you are in any doubt you should contact your Local Planning Authority or a Building Control Body.

2. Difference between Zoning codes or ordinances and building codes  

Zoning code provides site-specific standards for development, including a list of uses that are allowed in each zone, density, lot size, set backs, and other standards. All development must comply with zoning.

Building Regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the safety and health for people in or about those buildings. They also include requirements to ensure that fuel and power is conserved and facilities are provided for people, including those with disabilities, to access and move around inside buildings.

B

1. The Planning Authority is responsible to ensure the above condition is complied to in the building.

If you believe that a particular requirement of the Building Regulations is too onerous, or inappropriate, in the particular circumstances of your plans or building work, you have a right under sections 8 and 9 of the 1984 Act to apply to the local authority asking them to either relax or dispense with the requirement. If the local authority refuses your application you have a right of appeal under section 39 of the 1984 Act to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government or the Welsh Ministers in the Welsh Assembly Government (as appropriate) against that decision, provided you do so within one month of the date of being notified.

2.Where you believe that the particular circumstances of your case are such that one or more requirements in the Building Regulations should either be relaxed or dispensed with altogether, so that your plans or building work can meet the requirements, the 1984 Act enables you to apply to the local authority for a relaxation or a dispensation of one or more of these requirements.

If the local authority refuses your application for a relaxation or dispensation of a particular requirement they should give an explanation of their reasoning. The local authority must also notify you of your right to appeal to the Secretary of State/Welsh Ministers against their decision within one month of notification of that decision.

Where an approved inspector is providing the building control service and the local authority has not already done so, you should inform the inspector of the authority's decision and seek his advice before proceeding. If you decide to appeal to the Secretary of State/Welsh Ministers, your appeal should similarly set out your case giving full justification for relaxing or dispensing with the requirement, and also address the reasons which the local authority should have given for refusing your application.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.