BUTLER TWP — With Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code nearly six years out-of-date, safety officials and building contractors are grappling with what code changes, or a lack of them, mean for homeowners and the construction industry.

Butler Township fire marshal Larry Christy said he's concerned the out-of-date state standards are creating safety hazards and making it more difficult for inspectors and contractors to do their jobs.

In a letter published in a regional newspaper, Christy called the state's system of code review and adoption under the Review and Advisory Council “dysfunctional.”

“What we'd like to see is just get a later code edition,” said Christy, who co-signed the letter with Montgomery County chief fire marshal John Waters.

The 19-member advisory council was created in 1999 and is appointed by the governor. Its members review updates to international code manuals and either adopt or reject the changes for the state's Uniform Construction Code.

There are 10 international code manuals that set standards for everything from residential and commercial construction to forest fire prevention.

The international manuals are updated every three years, and the number of changes can be huge. About 3,000 changes separate the 2009 and 2015 manuals.

But Pennsylvania last updated its code in 2009, meaning those code changes aren't part of the state's construction regulations.

Butler County contractor Frank Thompson was council chairman from 2009 to 2014. He agreed the state's process needs to be tweaked to make the council's job easier to do.

Thompson said about 90 percent of the unadopted code changes are “editorial” and don't have a significant impact on health, safety or general welfare.

But what Thompson called the “single biggest component” of the changes — energy codes — will have an impact on something else: People's pocketbooks.

An easy-to-understand example is something called “The 30 percent Solution” — basically a phased-in increase in energy efficiency requirements for new homes. Pennsylvania hasn't implemented the last 15 percent increase, which came in the 2012 code updates, Thompson said.

The code changes represent thousands of dollars in new costs for home builders, according to a Pennsylvania Home Builders Association study. The energy code changes between 2009 and 2012 can cost as much as $10,904 to comply with, according to the study.

“One of the challenges is you have the extra expense, and it's not being accounted for in your (home) appraisals,” Thompson said. “So you have to come out-of-pocket in many situations to fund these improvements.”

Both Christy and Thompson say the updates are lagging because of state rules that make the council's job impractical and its performance uneven.

For example, in 2009 the council voted to adopt all of the hundreds of code changes proposed in the international manuals.

Three years later, in 2012, the council voted to reject all of the proposed changes.

It's a system that Butler code officer John Evans dislikes intensely.

“They've made something easy into something so difficult,” Evans said. “It's close to insanity if you ask me.”

State Sen. Charles McIlhinney, a Bucks County Republican who proposed legislation in 2013 to change the rules governing the council's review of the international code manuals, called the system backward.

“It is improbable that in every code cycle, the changes are either all good or all bad for Pennsylvania,” said McIlhinney.

McIlhinney's legislation would have given the council an extra year to review proposed code changes, allowed them to review changes from past years and automatically adopted changes unless the council voted by a two-thirds majority to specifically reject them.

The bill was passed by the Pennsylvania Senate but died in the House without being taken up, much to the chagrin of Thompson.

“I was watching it on PCN. I couldn't believe it,” Thompson said of the bill's failing.

Thompson says he's optimistic that a rules change could come in the next year, but Christy doesn't share that outlook.

Christy said, “I see us using the 2009 codes in 2016, maybe even 2017. I don't see a whole lot being done this (legislative) session.”

Christy believes the out-of-date codes are creating safety hazards and making it more difficult for code officers and contractors to do their jobs.

“We're looking at minimum standards, and the state of Pennsylvania is, I believe, taking a risk in saying we don't believe in a minimum standard,” Christy said.

Thompson disagrees: “I didn't see anything in the (code) changes that I thought were life-safety hazards.”

The two also disagree over the effect special interest groups have on the state's code review process.

Christy said, “These are individuals who have no background in public safety and are looking out for the interests of the building industry above citizens.”

Thompson sees the back-and-forth as part of any “normal political process.”

“I think the process is working, and the (council) has good, diverse interests that represent all of Pennsylvania's diverse groups,” he said.