Board of Appeals to hold public hearing on proposed new codes

The Cape Girardeau Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Osage Centre on the proposed new building codes.

The hearing is to consider comments made at the Dec. 16 city council public hearing and to make specific recommendations to the council on the codes.

At the December hearing, several contractors raised issues regarding the proposed codes, including seismic design for residential, egress requirements for basements and proposed changes to the electrical code.

The board of appeals reviewed the proposed codes over the past two years. It is considering a total of seven model codes, all adopted by the International Code Council. Currently, the city uses a combination of model codes from various sources.