Building & Safety

Welcome to the Building Division

The Building and Safety Division is committed to assuring safety in the built environment while meeting the needs of the development community in an efficient, equitable, and cost-effective manner.

We strive to maintain the highest level of customer service and technical expertise possible while respecting human dignity.

We promote open communication while providing honest and accurate information and encourage positive working relationships by cooperating and sharing information and resources.

Recent Updates

A new Development Code is in effect as of October 12, 2023. Check out the Objective Design Standards page to find out more information on the adopted changes, including changes to the height measurement standards.

Effective January 1, 2026, the ASCE 7-22 design snow hazard tool can be used, taking in consideration below:

Note regarding use of older snow studies:

If an attempt is made to justify the use of historic snow load tables after a rejection of the ASCE 7-22 data, the authors recommend the following procedure at a minimum:

1. Convert the existing ASD ground snow loads (pg) to an LRFD value, as the LRFD values are the basis for all of the updated load combinations in ASCE 7-22. The author recommends a load factor of 1.6 to align with the methodology of the previous code edition.
2. Account for Risk Category, as the Snow Importance Factor (Is) is no longer a part of ASCE-7. There are now separate ground snow load maps for each risk category. Table 1.5-2 of ASCE 7-16 was the source of these importance factors in the previous code edition.