Support a statewide building code

Maine legislators are considering implementing a statewide building code, one of the recommendations of the GrowSmart-Brookings report, in order to reduce the costs of local code enforcement and to make redevelopment and revitalization more cost-effective. You can also leave a phone message for your senator by calling 1-800-423-6900.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Support a statewide building code

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I hope that you will lend your support to LD 2257, A Statewide Building and Energy Code.

A statewide code was one of the recommendations of the GrowSmart-Brookings report in 2006. It could help tremendously with revitalizing our historic downtowns by giving developers more certain and consistent regulations.

A statewide code also gives towns the option of sharing code enforcement offices to save on local budgets.

I also urge you to oppose amendments to this bill that would allow individual towns to opt out of enforcement. This would prevent Maine from having a truly statewide regulatory framework, and undermine the benefits of the idea.

Please support a truly statewide building code by voting for LD 2257.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
March 26, 2008

Background Information

The GrowSmart-Brookings report's "action plan for sustainable prosperity" included over two full pages (pp. 119-121) of recommendations to reform the state's complicated patchwork of building codes.

"Today, Maine's lack of a uniform statewide building code seriously hinders redevelopment by injecting uncertainty into investors' decisionmaking, consuming time, and making clear guidance from a central source impossible to obtain," wrote the Brookings Institution.

Fortunately, tackling the state's building codes was one of the first action items from the report that the Legislature tackled last year, and lawmakers directed the State Planning Office to draft a bill that would implement a single, statewide code of building and energy standards.

That bill is now ready to go before the legislature as LD 2257, and it fits in nicely with this spring?s agenda to support other revitalization and redevelopment legislation like the historic preservation tax credit.

At the same time, some efforts are emerging that would weaken the bill by letting some towns opt out of enforcing the statewide code. This idea would defeat the purpose of the statewide code, which is to provide a consistent regulatory structure across the entire state.

You can read the bill's text here.