(1) Many municipalities within this Commonwealth have no construction codes to provide for the protection of life, health, property and the environment and for the safety and welfare of the consumer, general public and the owners and occupants of buildings and structures. Consumers and occupants may be at risk from substandard construction.

(2) Likewise, in some regions of this Commonwealth a multiplicity of construction codes currently exist and some of these codes may contain cumulatively needless requirements which limit the use of certain materials, techniques or products and lack benefits to the public. Moreover, the variation of construction standards caused by the multiplicity of codes may slow the process of construction and increase the costs of construction.

(3) The way to insure uniform, modern construction standards and regulations throughout this Commonwealth is to adopt a Uniform Construction Code.

(4) The model code of the Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA), is a construction code which has been widely adopted in this Commonwealth and in the geographical region of the United States of which this Commonwealth is a part. Adoption of a nationally recognized code will insure that this Commonwealth has a uniform, modern construction code which will insure safety, health and sanitary construction.

(1) To provide standards for the protection of life, health, property and environment and for the safety and welfare of the consumer, general public and the owners and occupants of buildings and structures.

(2) To encourage standardization and economy in construction by providing requirements for construction and construction materials consistent with nationally recognized standards.

(3) To permit to the fullest extent feasible the use of state-of-the-art technical methods, devices and improvements consistent with reasonable requirements for the health, safety and welfare of occupants or users of buildings and structures.

(4) To eliminate existing codes to the extent that these codes are restrictive, obsolete, conflicting and contain duplicative construction regulations that tend to unnecessarily increase costs or retard the use of new materials, products or methods of construction or provide preferential treatment to certain types or classes of materials or methods of construction.

(5) To eliminate unnecessary duplication of effort and fees related to the review of construction plans and the inspection of construction projects.

(6) To assure that officials charged with the administration and enforcement of the technical provisions of this act are adequately trained and supervised.

(7) To insure that existing Commonwealth laws and regulations, including those which would be repealed or rescinded by this act, would be fully enforced during the transition to Statewide administration and enforcement of a Uniform Construction Code. Further, it is the intent of this act that the Uniform Construction Code requirements for making buildings accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities do not diminish from those requirements previously in effect under the former provisions of the act of September 1, 1965 (P.L. 459, No. 235),¹ entitled, as amended, “An act requiring that certain buildings and facilities adhere to certain principles, standards and specifications to make the same accessible to and usable by persons with physical handicaps, and providing for enforcement.”

(8) To start a process leading to the design, construction and alteration of buildings under a uniform standard.