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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 10/07/2024 PUBLIC HEARING October 7, 2024 Present: Matt Scherr Chairman Jeanne McQueeney Commissioner Kathy Chandler-Henry Commissioner Jeff Shroll County Manager Beth Oliver County Attorney Kathy Scriver Deputy Clerk to the Board This being a scheduled Public Hearing,the following items were presented to the Board of County Commissioners for their consideration: Work Session(s) - Eagle County Room 1. Economic Services Update 2.Notice of 2025 Budget and Discussion Business Items - Eagle County 1.LUR-009446-2024-Repeal of Engineering Standards and Building Code Amendment David McWilliams, Community Development Executive Summary: The purpose of the application is to amend the text of the Eagle County Land Use Regulations including Chapter I; Chapter II; Chapter III; and appendices. Mr. McWilliams, Senior Eagle County staff planner,reviewed the LUR review process and stated that the process began in May of 2024. One public comment(letter)was received which was included as Exhibit 3. There was a 30-day referral period during which 79 agencies were notified. He reviewed the reasoning for the amendments and stated that the Engineering Criteria Manual(ECM)was half housed within the ECLUR and half as a stand-alone document. For the new Building Code,the 2021 was processed in conjunction with the adoption of the 2021 International Residential Code and International Building Code(the"new Building Code"); and the continued Eagle County Engineering Criteria Manual(the"ECM")transfer. Chapter 1 updates included: • Remove references to Chapter III and building official responsibilities • Update reference to Chapter V(Construction within ROW regulations) • Clarify permitting language • Update enforcement language to reflect Colorado Revised Statutes He reviewed the changes to Chapter II,Article 4 - Site Development Standards, Chapter II,Article 7, Chapter II, Appendices, and Chapter III. The new building code was not recommended to be adopted until the beginning of 2025. He reviewed the agency referrals from Grand County,Pitkin County, Colorado Department of Public Health, and Roaring Fork Fire Rescue. He reviewed the standards and indicated that the application met all the standards of approval and staff recommended approval with one condition. 1 10/07/2024 Commissioner Chandler-Henry asked about page 11 in the staff report with regard to Chapter II Article 4 and with regard to site development standards that were moved to the Engineering Manual. A couple of changes indicated minor typos were corrected, and she wondered if the sections were moved. Mr. McWilliams stated that those sections relating to wildfire and water supply remained where they were and were not included in the ECM. Chairman Scherr asked about the one public comment and the suggestions that were raised. Mr. McWilliams stated that the comments would be addressed in one of the upcoming presentations. Chairman Scherr opened and closed public comment, as there was none. Commissioner McQueeney stated that she appreciated everyone's work on the file. She believed the amendments would provide more flexibility. Commissioner Chandler-Henry believed the intense effort in clean-up would pay off in the future. She believed the application met the standards. Chairman Scherr also agreed that it met the standards and appreciated all the work to make the structure and process more streamlined, effective, and efficient for staff and the public. Commissioner Chandler-Henry moved to approve File No. LUR-009446-2024, incorporating staff's findings and one condition,because this application meets the standards of approval for an amendment to the text of the Land Use Regulations. Commissioner McQueeney seconded the motion. The vote was declared unanimous. 2.ECM-009460-224 Major Amendment to the Engineering Criteria Manual Julie Pranger,Engineering Executive Summary: The Eagle County Engineering Department requests a Major Amendment("Amendment")to the Eagle County Engineering Criteria Manual("ECM"). The purpose of this Amendment is to transfer current Engineering standards from the Eagle County Land Use Regulations Article 4 -Site Development Standards to the ECM. With the exception of a few grammatical corrections,no changes to applicability, intent,purpose,or language to any standards are proposed. Julie Pranger, Senior Eagle County staff engineer,presented. She stated that this was the first time doing one of these major amendments, so the staff was happy to get feedback. The file type was unique as they were not referred to external referral agencies. The file was noticed in the newspaper and on the website. As Mr. McWilliams mentioned,they were moving the majority of standards from Article 4 in the Land Use Regulations to the Engineering Criteria Manual. They were technical engineering site-specific site development standards and were not related to zoning or land use specifically. They were all being pulled out verbatim and not changing language, applicability, or purpose. The board had a few standards to consider,but only one needed to be found in conformance to approve the file. Staff found that the file met a variety of the standards. Chairman Scherr opened and closed public comment, as there was none. Commissioner McQueeney moved to approve File No. ECM-009460-2024 because the application meets the standards of approval for a major amendment to the Eagle County Engineering Criteria Manual. Commissioner Chandler-Henry seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. 2 10/07/2024 3.Building Resolution Amendments Bill Gibson, Community Development Executive Summary: Amendments to the Eagle County Building Resolution; including but not limited to, adoption of the 2021 international codes with electric preferred energy strategies and exterior energy off-set program updates. Bill Gibson, Director of Community Development,presented the proposed Building Resolution amendments. There would be a follow-up resolution in the future. The county proposed adopting the 2021 version of the international model codes with"electric preferred"energy requirements and other local amendments as outlined in the 97-page redlined version of the resolution in the board's packet. The effective date would be January 1, 2025. He introduced Shaunna Mozingo with Mozingo Code Group and John Gitchell and Tori Franks from the Eagle County Resilience team. Ms. Mozingo spoke about the proposed code language and the reasoning behind the changes. Her suggestions were not a change in requirements;they were simply more code language. Mr. Gibson noted that staff received a public comment about snow load requirements and climate design criteria standards. This is something staff wanted to look at but did not want to slow down the adoption of the code today. The State of Colorado adopted HB22-1362,which required local jurisdictions to adopt and enforce the 2021 IECC and the Colorado model electric-ready and solar-ready code, which is what was reflected in the proposal today. The 2015 building codes no longer reflect industry best practices and no longer adequately support Eagle County goals and policies. The proposed amendment supported Eagle County Strategic Priority to Protect Mountain Ecosystem and Climate Action Plan. There was a multi jurisdictional Eagle County Building Code Cohort that involved collaborating with local jurisdictions, and the group recommended the adoption of the 2021 IECC with"electric preferred"amendments. Neighboring jurisdictions had already adopted the 2021 codes with electric-ready and electric-preferred standards,plus updates to Exterior Energy Offset Programs(EEOP). There were a lot of training opportunities out there for the 2021 codes and the energy code. On February 8,2024, Community Development hosted a day-long Code Seminar. John Gitichel, Eagle County Climate Action Manager,thanked everyone for their work on the building code update. He believed it was of critical importance for the Climate Action Plan and implementation because half of the community's total emissions were directly from residential and commercial buildings. The top two goals were to improve energy efficiency, electrify existing buildings, and work towards an all-electric building code by 2030. In 2006,Eagle County adopted ECO Build,an energy and resource efficiency building code that included an exterior energy offset program. The adoption of the IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) in 2015 replaced most of ECO Build, and only the energy offset program remained. This program offsets energy-intensive outdoor amenities that are common in resort communities. He reviewed the recommended updates. • Correction of energy use calculations for snowmelt and swimming pools; • Include all building projects(new and retrofit, commercial and residential); • Addition of heat tape and heat mats to regulate outdoor energy uses; • Addition of backup batteries as an offset option to support; • Alignment of the fee-in-lieu amount with the local cost of installing solar as an offset,with adjustments to changes in market rates every three years; • Offset requirement for 100%of the exterior energy uses(currently 50%) in alignment with neighboring counties and municipalities and provided consistency. Mr. Gitchel reviewed some questions the board had during a prior work session and provided some background. Staff recommended that irrigation systems not be included in the EEOP regarding landscape irrigation. There may be other ways to capture the broader impacts of irrigation. Another question related to snowmelt exemption areas. Staff did not find any justification for an exemption and recommended that the total energy use for a snow melt system be offset. Another question related to the EEOP language describing how the replacement .of existing energy uses was calculated. The calculator provided a tool and description for prorating offset requirements. 3 10/07/2024 Mr. Gibson reviewed the standards of approval and indicated that the application promoted the health, safety,resiliency, affordability, sustainability,and general welfare of the community. It also promoted the safety, protection, and sanitation of dwellings,buildings, and structures; met the requirements of the Colorado General Assembly adopted HB22-1362, Supported the Board of County Commissioners' Strategic Priority to Protect our Mountain EcoSystem and the Eagle County Community Climate Action Plan; and aligned with the Eagle County Building Code Cohort recommended adoption of the 2021 IECC with"electric preferred"amendments for the purpose of establishing a regionally-consistent base energy code that supports countywide sustainability,climate, and resiliency goals. Chairman Scherr opened public comment. Brian Rose with 10 Acre Holdings, LLC reviewed some of his comments mentioned in a memo submitted for public comment. Snow loads The proposed snow load provisions were extremely outdated because the provisions refer to a 53-year-old document that is difficult to obtain, very outdated, and had been revised a few times. He proposed that Eagle County reference the latest(2016)version of the document(2016 Colorado Design Snow Loads). It incorporated the latest data,research, and rational design, enhancing safety. The 2016 document was also designed to dovetail with modern building codes. Also,the proposed amendment included a provision requiring the use of ASCE 7 snow loads. As proposed, it was poorly written. When interpreted/followed as written here, it referred the designer to ASCE 7-16 which in turn refers to "2016 Colorado Design Snow Loads," for nearly all sites. Climatic Design Criteria The proposed Manual J Design Criteria(for heating and cooling equipment)as proposed was a"one size fits all"criteria for the very large area that unincorporated Eagle County is. The criteria seemed to be tuned to weather measurements taken at Eagle Airport. Therefore, it penalized sites at lower elevations or less severe weather, including the Mid-Valley Area of the Roaring Fork River with Eagle County. He proposed that Eagle County allow using more local-specific criteria. Also,the"one size fits all"approach required installing excess heating capacity,which was wasteful and counter to sustainability and climate action plans and required more expensive and redundant heating equipment. Chairman Scherr closed public comment. Ms.Mozingo agreed with some of the comments made by Mr. Rose about the snow loads as they were referencing a very old standard. The newer code removed some safety factors due to warming temperatures. She believed it should be looked into, and bringing that piece back later would be great. Regarding design temperatures, she agreed with Mr. Rose's comments. She believed one way to address the"one size fits all" approach would be to split the county into different climate zones. Chairman Scherr stated that Mr. Rose's comments were valid and important but wouldn't be addressed in this update. Staff would go back and address the issues in a future update. August Hasz,President and Principal Engineer at Resource Engineering Group, Inc. (REG), spoke. When they overhauled the calculator completely for Pitkin County in 2020,they tried to highlight the calculations making all the cells and counts more visible. The new spreadsheet format was more user-friendly. It wasn't perfect,but they put a lot of effort into making it what it was. He believed having a version that people could look at would be helpful. Similar versions were available on the Pitkin and Summit County websites. He added that he believed it would be important to look at the high and low temperatures to keep up with changes in local climate. Chairman Scherr closed public comment. 4 10/07/2024 Commissioner Chandler-Henry moved to approve the amendments to the Building Resolution because this Application promotes the health, safety,resiliency, affordability, sustainability,and general welfare of our community;promotes the safety,protection, and sanitation of dwellings,buildings,and structures;meets the requirements of the Colorado General Assembly adopted HB22-1362; supports the Board of County Commissioners' Strategic Priority to Protect our Mountain EcoSystem and the Eagle County Community Climate Action Plan; aligns with the Eagle County Building Code Cohort recommended adoption of the 2021 IECC with "electric preferred"amendments for the purpose of establishing a regionally-consistent base energy code that supports countywide sustainability,climate, and resiliency goals. Commissioner McQueeney seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. ``Q("A F EAG(FcG� There being no further busin s • . s ard, the meeting was adjourned until October 8, 2024. cO1 O R 406 Attest: /I C erk t e Board Chairman 5 10/07/2024