Removing Building Regulatory Barriers
(January 2004, 51 pages)
As part of its strategic goal to increase the availability of decent, safe, and affordable housing in American communities, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) has been involved in efforts to advance housing technology through its administration of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). This
Federal initiative works to accelerate the creation and widespread use of new building products and technologies to improve the quality, durability, environmental performance,
energy efficiency, disaster-resistance, and affordability of our nation's housing.
Building regulatory activities directly and indirectly affect new building technology
research, development and deployment. For instance, a building technology developer
may devote resources to research and development of a building technology,
discovering too late in the process that the technology does not meet building regulatory
criteria. As a consequence the technology must then be tested, retested, redesigned or
significant documentation developed indicating it meets the intent but not the specific
criteria of adopted codes. Similarly, local code officials may be reluctant to approve a
technology submitted in a homebuilding permit application unless sufficient
documentation showing code compliance on the basis of performance equivalency with
the code is provided or there is specific guidance in their codes and regulations
pertaining to the new technology to minimize the need for such documentation. Builders
may also not want to assume the liability for a non-traditional technology or invest the
time necessary to secure approval; consequently more traditional technology is used.
These and other situations impact the ability for new building technology to contribute to
the PATH objectives.
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