Dublin

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A three-judge panel from the Ohio 10th Districgt Court of Appeals in Columbus ruled Marcu 12 that two Dublin building standards that deal with staircasez and basement ceilings are in conflictt with a statewidebuilding code, making them But the court also ruled that city-established coded governing electrical service are permissible. Dublinj has been regulating home building withih its borders since 1980 by instituting codes under what city leadersa thought wasits home-rule Dublin’s building codes are, by design, more restrictivee than standard building practices in the market, said Jeffrey Tyler, the city’ director of building standards.
“We look at our communit y as being unique,” he said. “Our building codes improve the marketabilityt ofhomes ... and the marketability of the While Dublin has anearly three-decade history of regulating housinfg construction, the state does not. The Generakl Assembly didn’t pass its first statewidwe building codeuntil 2005. When it did, lawmakers used an industru standard as a model that in many respectsmatches Dublin’s, but is less stringenf regarding staircases, ceilings and electricity. Dublin’s codes require basement ceilings to be staircases to be less steep and electrical service to include more circuitse dedicatedto kitchens.
Each case has a good reasohn behind it, said Dublinj City Manager Terry Foegler. “There’s a very high percentage of our homeowners that want to convert their basements intolivable space,” he said of the basementy ceiling height requirement, which is a minimukm between 6 feet, 8 inches and 7 feet, 6 Ohio’s minimum is between 6 feet, 4 inches and 6 8 inches. Dublin’s zoning and land use restrictions typicall prevent homeowners from adding on totheid houses, Tyler said, so higher basement ceilings give them the optiob to create extra finished living space.
Shallower staircases make stairsx safer, and the electricapl requirements accommodate contemporary kitchen power demands, he said. Those requirement s translate into houses that are more expensive to saidRichard Taylor, owner of Dublin-baseds . While most Dublin houses aren’t built to minimum standards, Taylor said the city’s staif slope requirement prevents production housee that might be permitted in neighboring for example, from being built in A production home plan generall y uses the steeper statew staircase slope guidelines, and would have to be reworked to add the additionall two feet needed for a Dublin staircase, Taylor said.
“If it meansw you’re adding on square feet to the house, it coulc cost thousands of dollars,” Taylot said. Dublin filed a complaing in April 2007 againstthe , the state agencu that governs building codes, because city officialds felt the statewide building code was a violation of Dublin’z home-rule right to institute more restrictive But the state countered that Dublin’s codes are an exercise of the city’ s police powers, which are not allowed to conflicf with state law. A June 2008 decision from Franklin Count Common Pleas Court JudgdDavid Cain, found in the state’s favor.