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Benefits of the Proposed NYC Construction Codes
| Safety is Front and Center |
- Expands fire safety requirements
- Expands sprinkler requirements to cover new residential buildings with 3 or more families, attached 2-families, and 1- and 2-families over 3 stories
- Expands automatic sprinkler requirements to other types of occupancies such as large places of assembly, factories, and fuel storage areas
- Requires interconnected hard-wired smoke alarms in all new residential units
- Enhances the design of standpipe systems in high-rises to provide substantial in-house water reserves for more efficient firefighting
- Expands the World Trade Center bill requirements for impact resistant stairways and elevator shafts and photo luminescent markings from commercial high-rises to more high-rises
- Enhances structural integrity requirements
- Updates wind load requirements to reflect location, surroundings, and occupancy factors
- Establishes stronger connectivity requirements to enable buildings to better withstand extreme events
- Introduces structural integrity design methods to protect structural key elements in areas containing high pressure gas and in large buildings with unique structural designs
- Expands construction safety
- Requires a site safety coordinator or manager for projects 10+ stories
- Increases pedestrian safety by requiring sheds with scaffolding on top to be designed by an engineer
- Requires permits and notification for more scaffold types
| Easier, Faster, and Less Expensive |
- Utilizes up-to-date national standards
- Materials and equipment that meet national standards will be able to be used without waiting for NYC approval - saving time, money, and facilitating innovative designs
- Facilitates cost-effective building
- A cost study by the Department has identified new code provisions that will result in thousands of dollars in construction cost savings
- Encourages online application filing
- The codes will recognize the use of electronic signatures and digital documents, which will streamline the process
- Provides an easier format to navigate
- The codes will be organized according to the International Code Council format, which is widely recognized by the industry as being more user-friendly
| Innovative and Sustainable |
- Gives fee rebates for green design
- Energy conservation beyond the New York State Energy Code
- Use of renewable energy
- Water conservation
- Recycling of construction and demolition waste
- Use of brownfield sites
- Achievement of LEED or comparable certification
- Facilitates reduction of CO2 emissions
- Achieves reduction in fuel burning as a result of energy savings by:
- Updating ventilation rates for energy efficient ventilation design
- Allowing intermittent operation of ventilation in kitchens, bathrooms, and showers
- Requiring more efficient ventilation, heating, and cooling systems design based on realistic atmospheric temperatures for NYC
- Facilitates biotechnology industry
- New provisions in the codes will enable biotechnology facilities (hospitals, research centers, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies ) to thrive
- Enhances accessibility standards
- NYC accessibility standards will be improved and brought in sync with federal mandates
- Three year revision cycle keeps code current
- The new law will require updates to the construction codes every three years, enabling the city to take advantage of world-wide innovations in safety, sustainability, new materials and technology
- Reflects New York City expertise
- Over 400 NYC experts from labor, industry, and government volunteered over $17 million dollars worth of their time to develop the codes
- Addresses our dense and diverse environment
- The International Code Council text was tailored to meet NYC's unique needs regarding density, population, small lot size, skyscrapers, and its variety of occupancy and building types
- Allows for future planning, as part of PlaNYC
- Future updates to the codes will be used to help achieve sustainability goals for the city's 2030 sustainability plan
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