City of Aspen Celebrates
National Building Safety Month
The City of Aspen is celebrating national Building Safety Month, which recognizes the necessity of the adoption of modern, regularly-updated building codes, as well as the team of professionals who work year-round to ensure the safe construction of buildings.
The resilience of the buildings that make up our community exists because of the devotion of vigilant guardians like building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, tradespeople, design professionals, laborers, plumbers, and others in the construction industry.
The progressive building and energy code amendments passed by Aspen City Council in January of 2023 have garnered local and statewide attention, highlighting the City of Aspen’s Community Development Department’s commitment to crafting thoughtful local policy in response to climate change and to maintain a safe and resilient built environment.
Council also adopted the 2021 International Codes (I-Codes), developed by the International Code Council. They are a family of 15 coordinated, modern building safety codes that help ensure the engineering of safe, sustainable, affordable, and resilient structures. The I-Codes are developed through a governmental consensus process and is a system that has provided the highest level of safety in the world for more than 90 years.
The new codes, effective March 31, 2023, now have wildfire resiliency requirements to protect our built environment. Additionally, all new R3 single family homes require fire sprinklers regardless of square footage. The codes also have aggressive energy conservation measures in line with Council’s goals to reduce emissions.
Aspen Building Department officials remind everyone to check the batteries in their smoke detectors, make sure carbon monoxide alarms are functioning properly, and get a wildfire mitigation assessment of your property by the Aspen Fire Department.
Aspen City Council is expected to recognize Building Safety Month via proclamation on May 23, 2023, recognizing the critical role of our communities’ largely unknown protectors of public safety –– our local code officials –– who assure us of safe, sustainable and affordable buildings that are essential to our prosperity.