Bill to revise state building codes gets favorable vote

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

   AUGUSTA — Three bills came up before the Maine Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee last week including two sponsored by Piscataquis County lawmakers.
   All three proposals sought to either eliminate or rein in the requirements of the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code, known as MUBEC.

   In the end, the committee reached a compromise; and most of what Higgins sought to accomplish received a close but favorable vote by the committee. Details will be hashed out in a legislative work session.
   Basically, Davis’ bill (LD 1120) would have eliminated MUBEC altogether while Higgins’ bill (LD 1093) would raise the population level of a town requiring mandatory enforcement of statewide building codes from 4,000 to 5,000.
   The third bill, sponsored by Sen. Amy Volk of Scarborough, would have simply changed the language of the current law from “shall enforce” to “may enforce” instead.
   Higgins pointed out that Dover-Foxcroft is the “only town within a 40-mile radius where MUBEC is mandated. Imagine two required inspections if you replace the decking on your porch. It’s expensive, time-delaying and aggravating.”
   Among those who testified in favor of changing the mandated inspections at an earlier committee hearing was Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey.
   “If you want to renovate an old building in a downtown area and don’t want to have to meet MUBEC requirements, then you can’t do the project in Dover-Foxcroft,” Clukey told the committee. “If you absolutely want to put up a new building in Dover-Foxcroft and you don’t want to have to hire a third party inspector to sign off on MUBEC, then you’ll be forced to put up a prefabricated building.”
   Clukey pointed out that Dover-Foxcroft issued 88 building permits in 2011, the year before MUBEC went into effect. In 2012, the number dropped to 53; and during the past 10 months, the town only issued 43.
   On May 5, the committee voted “ought to pass as amended” on LD 1191 by a “slender majority vote along party lines, with the committee’s independent legislator joining the panel’s Republicans in support,” according to the Maine Municipal Association.
   The amended version of LD 1191 would allow the legislative body of municipalities between 4,000 and 10,000 to opt-out of an obligation to enforce MUBEC.
   The committee then voted “ought not to pass” on Davis’ bill to repeal MUBEC altogether.