Hacking the Building Code: Part two - Building Officials and how to approach them

In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with our local planning and building departments, as well as some local artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice. I also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide. I’ll be posting these over the next few months with the intent to make a comprehensive guide.

The first post in the series is available here: Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?

Disclaimer

This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case. 

Building Departments & Officials

In our first section, we talked about what codes are and where to find them. Now we’re going to talk about the people in different departments who enforce these codes.

There are generally three different roles you’ll find in the various departments, and that are Managers, Reviewers, and Inspectors. Sometimes one person will play all of those roles in a smaller department, and in a larger department you might even have sub-classes of specific Reviewers for just parts of a project, such as someone who’s just reviewing the structural engineering vs. someone else who’s just reviewing the plumbing schemes. Some cities will even outsource some of these roles, such as a smaller town using a service to review plans instead of having someone in-house do it. But generally, these are the three ‘roles’ you will be working with, and we’ll go into some more detail on each one.

Managers help run the department. You’ll typically only work with them if you’re doing a larger project that requires larger submissions, multiple meetings with the department, special variances or rules applied, and/or public hearings. Most simple renovation projects probably won’t need to have them involved, but if you’re changing Use (more on that in the next post in the series) or doing something big and/or creative, then you’ll likely be working with them, as they will need to approve the project. So for example, let’s say you’re doing a project where you’re taking an old building owned by the City and trying to turn it into a creative theater space for a kid’s non-profit. You’d likely have to be working directly with the Mayor’s office in addition to the local planning and building departments, and you’d need to be talking directly to the various Managers therein well ahead of actually submitting for permits to ensure success on the project.

Reviewers are the ‘front line’ people you will be working with the most. When you go into the department to ask questions, review your plans, and/or submit for permits it’s a Reviewer that you’ll be talking with. They are entrusted with making certain that what you’re planning on doing follows the Code, and they are the ones who will sign off directly on your plans. As an example, let’s say you want to lease an old cafe and turn it into a book and coffee shop. You’d likely first be working with Planning and Building officials to review your plans and make corrections before you go for the permits, and obviously working very closely with them to obtain all the different permits needed to begin construction and actually open as a legal business. 

Inspectors are the ‘field’ people you will be working with when the project is in construction. They are the ones who will be inspecting the work done, ensuring that it’s done correctly, and making notes on what has to be corrected for them to approve the work. They are the ones who will sign off that something was done correctly and is officially ‘done’. If we take our last cafe example from above, halfway through the project once the new plumbing was done, you’d need to have a Building Inspector review the work, and ‘sign off’ on it (typically on something called a ‘job card’) before it gets covered up by the rest of the following construction so that there is a record that the pipes you can’t see when the project is completed were done properly. Unless you’re acting as your own contractor, it’s more likely that the contractor will be scheduling these inspections and working with them, but there are plenty of times where you may have to directly engage with them as well, such as for Health Code inspections prior to opening something like a cafe.

It’s all made of people

All of these various departments are made of people. “The City” or “The Building Department” is not a monolithic all-knowing force out to stop you from doing what you want. It’s just a bunch of people. People you probably have far more in common with than you may realize. Just like you, they are into details, ideas, and love seeing things get built. They actually want to work with you, but only if they can see what you’re doing is safe, legal, isn’t going to get anyone in trouble, and possibly is good for the community. And they will only work with you if you’re not a jerk. 

Bring them something they might not have seen before, like a Makerspace, and you’ve got some work to do to help them understand what it is. So getting upset, or approaching them as if you are smarter than they are, or thinking you can debate your way into being ‘right’ or thinking you’ve found some sort of ‘gotcha’ in the code doesn’t really help. 

What helps is being nice, friendly, listening to what they have to say, and trying to connect with and understand where they are coming from first. Only then can you really try to explain what you’re trying to do, and help them clearly understand how they might help you do that. 

And if they are wrong, which does happen, don’t be a jerk about it. Instead try to find common ground, and explain nicely and calmly your case for why you think you are right, not why they are wrong. You’re not trying to ‘win’ , you're trying to work together.

These People are Just Like You

These people are usually passionate about what they do. As an example, the Fire Marshal has spent their whole life working on fire safety. They are typically firefighters who worked their way up into this senior role over many years. They are huge fire safety nerds. And as a creative person, you can identify with being a huge nerd about something most people may not pay too much attention to. 

The Fire Marshal not only cares deeply about fire safety, all their friends tend to be firefighters too. Firefighters that might be put at risk by the stupid thing you may be doing. It’s quite likely the Fire Marshal has lost good friends who died trying to save people who were doing stupid things. So have some respect for their knowledge and passion for the subject, and if they think you are doing something stupid you should listen, apologize, and ask them to help you not be stupid. They may seem upset all the time, but they are upset because they really do care. Don’t take it personally. 

Ask them what they think about your extinguisher layouts, ask them what brand of smoke detectors they like, and try to take advantage of their deep knowledge. They would love nothing more than to talk fire safety with you for hours. And the same goes for many building officials. Try to tap into their passion, for most officials actually want to help.

People are Messy

It’s inherently opaque and disorganized. Get over it and on with it. Any bureaucracy is inherently un-democratic, because if you don’t know how to approach it, you can’t get anything done. And any given building is overseen by many different agencies. Agencies that not only don’t talk to each other, they aren’t even aware of each other's rules much of the time. And sometimes those rules will conflict. Also it’s totally possible that the Reviewer or Inspector you’re talking with has little experience with the specifics of the issue at hand, such as an Inspector with a deep plumbing background reviewing your accessible handrails you just installed. So it’s entirely on you to do the legwork, keep great notes, do your research, reach out to the City, get everything in writing if you can, and always ask every building official you talk to “who else should I speak with about this?”.

Yes, it stinks that it’s this way. Complaining about it doesn’t help. There is a reason professionals like me can make a living just helping others navigate these waters. It’s complex. Also most building professionals, like architects and engineers, would probably love to help you out for cheap or free if you’re doing something cool and good for the community. So don’t complain, put in the legwork, and get help if you can.

Get It Together

Because the departments aren’t typically well organized, you will need to pick up that slack, and the more organized you can be the better. Keeping good notes, clear documentation, and having great easy to understand plans goes a long way. Making the building official’s lives harder by making them have to work more to even understand what you’re trying to do is only going to make your project harder to pull off. 

Also while it’s not fair, if you know the terminology, can fit into something they already understand, and have some credentials, building officials will usually be much easier to work with. For they will assume that you’re not going to waste their time or make things harder than they should be, or worse get them into trouble because they approved something they didn’t really understand that wound up becoming a problem.

For example, because I’m a licensed architect, it’s far easier for me to get results out of conversations with various department officials, for they assume that I’m working in Good Faith, that my ideas are reasonable, and that I know at least something about the problem at hand. Approaching them as ‘local well-organized Community Leader trying to open a gallery’ instead of ‘interesting but disorganized local artist looking to do something new and creative in a space that’s kind of like a gallery but isn’t’ is going to get much better results.

Think about how to organize and communicate your project such that anyone can understand exactly what it is with the least amount of effort on their part.

Know your Rights

If a building official says you can’t do something, or a neighbor raises a ruckus, but the law and codes are on your side, then it’s a good thing for you to know that. The more you can learn here the better. Look at this just like any other creative project, just like with most things there are rules, but there are also creative solutions, and a whole world of things that someone once said couldn’t be done. Getting professional help from a firm like mine or a lawyer who specializes in land use issues is highly recommended as well.

Also while there are lots and lots of rules, there is sometimes the possibility of a Variance, which is an official exemption or modification to a specific rule for your project. Variances can be difficult to get, so don’t bet your project’s success on them unless you already have them, but since it’s all made of people, it is possible to get the rules changed to allow you to do something great.

And know your lack of rights as well! For example, a Fire Marshal can enter any space they deem needs to be inspected for fire safety at any time. Unlike a Police officer, they don’t need a warrant, probable cause, or your permission; and they can literally have you arrested for interfering with them. Asking them for a warrant when they randomly show up will only convince them that you’re possibly an idiot who’s doing something stupid they need to stop. So don’t make them mad by misunderstanding your rights.

TL;DR: It’s People, all the way down.

Which is both amazing and frustrating, empowering and horrifying, inspiring and messy.

In the next section we’ll talk about the primary thing all the Codes and Officials pivot around, and that is the concept of Use.