Agenda 21

Gilbert Watch recently posted an article titled The 2012 ICC’s New Regulations: Will Gilbert Adopt them?  If you would like to gain some insight into the pro and con discussion at the Town Council level about the wisdom of adopting several hundred pages of new regulations in Gilbert, please attend the Tuesday, July 30 Study Session.  This is a discussion only; no votes will be taken.

The meeting will be held in the Council Chambers of the Gilbert Municipal Center, 50 E. Civic Center Drive, beginning at 4:00 pm. 

If you cannot attend, you can watch the meeting on Gilbert Live Channel 11.   Gilbert keeps an archive of past meetings, so, if you cannot watch it live, you can watch it later at your convenience.  
Click here for the link to the Agenda.
Click here for the link to Gilbert Live Channel 11.
 
Here is the item as it is stated on the Agenda:
2. Presentation and discussion on the adoption of the following technical codes:
2012 International Building Code
2012 International Residential Code
2012 International Mechanical Code
2012 International Plumbing Code
2012 International Fuel Gas Code
2012 International Energy Conservation Code
2012 International Fire Code
2012 International Green Construction Code
2011 National Electric Code
2013 Code for the Enforced Removal or Abatement of Prohibited Conditions, and Arizonans with Disabilities Act and possible amendments thereto as set forth in the Town of Gilbert Building and Construction Regulations 2013 edition.
The following chart depicts the proliferation of just one family of codes:  International Residential Code:

Rusdon Ray, a local Gilbert draftsman/Home Designer, has written the following report on a meeting that took place on  April 4 with the Gilbert Planning Department regarding the ICC’s (International Code Council) 2012 International Building Codes.  It is expected that on June 1, 2013, Gilbert Town Management will propose to the Council that these codes are made into “law.”  Rusdon and many citizens want to see them in their useful place in the free market as suggestions and recommendations.  See previous articles written by Rusdon: Out of Control EPA and Arizona Code Enforcers and Quest for Excellence:  Best Done through Mandates or Personal Choice?
Have these thousands of pages of codes been made law in your  town or city, without being read or understood?   Here is Rusdon’s report on one of 9 code books: 2012 International Residential Code. 

Ask Gilbert Town Council to not pass as law the 2012 Family of International codes which have come to them as “recommendations and suggestions" only.
Keep them as they came down to us as “recommendations and suggestions" only!
 

(2012 codes as proposed!)

Cory Carpenter recently published an Opinion piece in the Arizona Republic titled Building Codes Could Restrict Freedom.  Please read it and comment.   In that article, he explains how the proliferation of construction, building, energy, and all kinds of other "codes" coming from the International Code Council in Washington, DC, have become so onerous, we are losing our basic freedoms.  
Gilbert Watch has published several articles relating to the Gilbert battle against these codes, headed by local draftsman and home designer, Rusdon Ray.
The issue isn’t, "Are the codes sound"?  Most, not all, are technically sound.  Many codes provide wonderful, new techniques for energy efficiency.  That isn’t the point.  The point is, "Why are town and city Councils across America turning them into LAWS?"   Why are they being shoved down the throats of American tradesmen and citizens?  
Town and city management routinely present these code "updates" to town and city Councils, recommending they be made law.  Shouldn’t the "burden of proof" for why a code should be a law be on the shoulders of government employees to prove?   
Haven’t we had enough federal domination and intrusion into our lives?