Title
Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance No. 02-313 An Ordinance of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, New Mexico, Adding, Amending, and Deleting Certain Sections of Chapter 22, Articles II, III, and IV.
Recommended Action
I introduce, without prejudice, Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance No. 02-313; and ask the staff to assure that it is published as provided in the County Charter.
County Manager's Recommendation
The County Manager recommends that Council introduce this Code Ordinance.
Body
In April of 2016 Los Alamos County Council adopted the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes together, to include NFPA 1 Fire Code and NFPA 101 Life Safety Code and associated referenced guides and standards as the Los Alamos County Fire Code. Although historical adoption has considered Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) utilization of NFPA 1 and 101; most of the work and projects within the Los Alamos County Fire Marshal’s office remain County - Community-based.
The Los Alamos County Building Safety Division utilizes the model base code of the International Code Council’s (ICC), International Building Code (IBC) 2015 edition with amendments as adopted in 2018 by the state of New Mexico’s Construction Industries Division. LANL can work within different code sets to include the ICC - IBC, IFC, NFPA and Factory Mutual (FM) as needed.
In 2019, the New Mexico State Fire Marshal’s office adopted the 2015 edition of the International Fire Code (IFC) with amendments. However, this edition is currently six years old and will limit the county’s ability to remain complaint with the Insurance Services Organization’s (ISO) requirement of having a fire code no older than ten years from adoption. Related, adopting a code edition within five to six years of release is a recommendation of the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CSPE) fire accreditation process. The adoption of the IFC 2021 edition will better serve the citizens regarding ISO requirements and prevent the need to repeat this process in one or two years when the state adopts the newer editions of the IFC and IBC. In addition, it will aid the department in maintaining high ratings of an ISO 1, Class 1 organization.
The adoption of the ICC’s International Fire Code (IFC) as the county fire code will allow for consistency and better alignment of the fire and building codes, being the same model base code of ICC. This action will aid both departments in working together with builders and developers of community projects and maintenance re-models of new and existing occupancies. Additionally, the 2021 edition of the IFC provides for certain requirements of cannabis, tents, food trucks and other activities that are not addressed in the IFC 2015 edition.
Adoption of the IFC 2021, will assist the Fire Marshal’s office in evaluating for the minimum requirements of fire and life safety considering today’s demands, and allow for congruent messaging to our customers between the building and fire codes. This adoption also broadcast’s that Los Alamos County leads the way in the State, as far as fire safety, by adopting the latest edition of the code to address today’s world.
Alternatives
Continue to utilize NFPA codes together including NFPA1 Fire Code and NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, which is not in full alignment of the current fire and building codes.
Attachments
A - Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance No. 02-313