The towns of Fairfax and San Anselmo have adopted the 2007 California Fire Code, which consists of certain portions of the 2006 edition of the International Fire Code as amended by the Building Standards Commission and certain provisions of the 2000 edition of the Uniform Fire Code.
The adoption process is required by the Town Councils approximately every three years to stay current with the minimum requirements of the State of California building and fire standards as determined by the California Building Standards Commission.
Every three years, the California Building Standards Commission publishes model codes such as the California Fire Code, Building Code, Mechanical Code, etc. Once published, local agencies have 180 days to make additions or amendments based on local conditions. If no changes are made during this 180-day window, the model codes become effective. The current code was adopted in November, 2007.
For the last three code adoption cycles, the Marin County Fire Prevention Officers have met and cooperatively reviewed the model code. The ordinances adopted by the Towns represent a cooperative effort to develop standard ordinance language. While some minor changes occur between jurisdictions, the end result is a more consistent and cooperative approach to fire safety issues, making it easier for contractors and developers to work with each jurisdiction.
The work of the committee was especially challenging with the 2007 code adoption. The State of California chose to move away from codes published by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) to codes published by the International Code Council (ICC). Our local code work group met over several days and reviewed the new 2007 California Fire Code (based on the ICC). This review was a page-by-page comparison with the current 2001 California Fire Code (based on the ICBO) to ensure that local issues were not overlooked. The result are ordinances that blend the best and most relevant from the old ICBO code and the new ICC code.
