Katy City Council unanimously approved an update to the city’s technical codes and construction standards Monday night. The new standards are intended to modernize the city’s construction ordinances and bring them up to the same standards most Texas cities have adopted, making it easier for developers to work within the city, Council Member Chris Harris said.

Roy Franklin, a building official with the city, said that adopting the new standards would provide consistency for designers and builders who work in other municipalities using the updated codes already.

“Builders really have a hard time going into the different areas that they’re building [in],” Franklin said. “Everywhere they go they have to look at different development codes.”

Franklin said that the city had been using codes from 2012 but now will be using codes that are updated to 2015 standards.

Harris said he expects the standardized regulations will help streamline the process for permitting and building within the city.

The city adopted the standards set forth in the 2015 editions of these codes:
– International Building Code
– International Energy Conservation Code
– International Existing Building Code
– International Fire Code
– International Fuel and Gas Code
– International Mechanical Code
– International Plumbing Code
– International Residential Code
– International Swimming Pool & Spa Code
– National Fire Protection Association 101 Life Safety Code

Adoption of the National Electric Code’s 2017 edition was also approved.

The codes will go into effect Jan. 1. The city is not adopting the part of the codes that requires sprinkler systems in residential dwellings over 3,000 square feet because state law does not allow a city to enforce that requirement, Harris and Franklin said.