Wrangell is looking to update its decades-old building codes as the community enters the construction phase of a new housing subdivision.
Assembly Member Dave Powell raised concerns over lax building codes and lack of enforcement at the Sept. 8 borough assembly meeting. The issue came up during a discussion about construction at the Alder Top subdivision.
Powell says that it’s time for stricter building codes to protect those who would inherit the town in the future.
I’ve been on assembly for 10 years, and we’ve discussed this for 10 years. I want this taken care of, and if we have to, I want all construction in this town to be halted, unless we see a plan, unless we see a code.
The assembly says that it’s not going to stop construction, but Powell’s concern opened the floor to a discussion on deficiencies in the municipal building code.
Here is Borough Manager Mason Villarma.
Historically, absolutely, there’s been no oversight. I think that we have a grapple on incoming permits, but just to what we can see, right? We don’t have a code compliance officer that’s going around town every week seeing what new properties are being developed and such. We just don’t.
He says the assembly attempted to address it in 2021 by drafting a new code during a work session. It was never completed due to concerns over what exceptions were needed to protect residents. Assembly member Bob Dalrymple [Dal-Rimple] says the new code had overly rigid building requirements that could be expensive and hard to satisfy in an isolated rural community.
The push and pull between regulations and personal freedoms is practically built into the Alaska experience. Villarma says this in an interview on Sept. 24.
Here in the state of Alaska, even more so than probably the Lower 48, people want the autonomy to develop their properties how they want to.
The current requirements were adapted from the 1997 Universal Building Code, with some tailoring to fit local needs. Commercial contractors, however, must adhere to 2021 building codes on new builds, according to Villarma, but that does not help with issues faced by old buildings that have not been required to be updated.
“Like the Marine Bar, for example, that was an old commercial building from the ‘50s. It was grandfathered in, so it didn’t have a sprinkler system,” Villarma says in the interview.
The borough assembly decided to schedule a work session on November 10 to review and update the codes.
Villarma says the work session will be followed by a first read of a proposed ordinance at a later date, then by a robust public comment period. He says because they can pick up where they left off in 2021, he is confident that the new code could be adopted by Christmas.
This isn’t something we’re doing to raise the cost of development for folks. It’s something to protect future generations of Wrangellites and those that will inherit property or develop property in the future.
Villarma says that, once adopted, an effective date would be set far into the future to give residents plenty of notice.
