Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-14
LOCAL BUILDING RULES
FREQUENT CHANGES IN REGULA.
TONS CAUSE FRICTION.

The District building regulations ara
changed too often" Is the charge and COM
plant continually made by contractors and
architects engaged in building work in
Washington, and. according to a statement
made today by Snowden Ashford. build.
ing inspector. one of the principal recon-
mendations made by the special commit
tee appointed several months ago by tho
Commissioners to make complete reyi.
sion Of the regulations. will be that afte-
this revision Is adopted changes Will pnly
be made In the future at stated periods
during the year.
The custom has been i'm the past for
the Commissioners to amend or otherwise
alter the regulations at will. and. "A re-
suit. the builders and architects declare
that under such conditions they nevcE
know what is allowed and what is not. ard
very often they begin n piece of work and
then find that some change has been made
in the regulations which makes part ot
their building plans violation Of the Law.
and they are compelled to go to mucf-
trouble and expense and make alterations
1t is explained that when the building
regulations were complied a number OF
years ago they were not definite and
changes were needed. and these changes
have been made by the Commissioner AZ
circumstances have required ever since.
AS those engaged in building work ex-
plain it, we never know where we stand
half the time. 1t is pointed out that
some of the changes have been absolutely
necessary. but that. on the other hand. In
case the Commissioners did not FAVOR some
particular plan or arrangement builder
was preparing to inaugurate. they would
alter the building regulations prohibiting
such a plan. and the builder would then
have to proceed i'm differtnt manner.
The committee to revise the building reg
ulations is composed of ten prominent cit-.
zens representing the various trades and
engaged I'm huillinP work who
are serving without compensation Snow
den Ashford, building inspector. his chair
man. The committee was formed last
spring. and IL was thought the work would
have been completed before this but a
matter OF fact the revision will not be thor
oughly completed and the various recon
mendations for changes will not be FOR
warded to the Commissioners before thu
latter part of March.
Inspector Ashford said today: We could
have finished before this time. but tnasmuch
as this revision was necessary because the
present compilation was not complete, We
deemed ii advisable to take our time and
not make a report until We have thoroughly
gone over every item and provision I'm con-
nection with building and until We Were
satisfied that the regulations are not want
ing In anything. | think when we have
finished you will find that we have not oaly
brought the regulations UP TO date. but that
they will be complete in every detail. and
that there will be necessity for altering
or amending them for some time to come.
However. certain changes are always
necessary. and no matter how perfect our
revision will be they will have to undergo
changes as the years go by. In anticipation
of this and aware of the mistakes of the
past the committee will recommend that
the necessary changes viii be made only on
certain dateS-Say two or three or possibly
four times a year-then all those Interested
in building work will know when t. IoDk
for changes and will be better able 10 ar
range their plans without fear of having To
change them before their operations are he
gun or are completed. such as the case
might be-
Another important change in the present
regulations will be the recommendation by
this committee that every law or regulation
governing buildings which is not strictly en-
forced will be excluded from the regIIla-
TONS and that every provision in the new
regulation must be enforced. At present
there are numerous regulations which are
not recognized by the builders and which
are not enforced by the Commissioners.
Possibly the most important of these is the
provision for fireproof shutters.
The committee will meet the latter part
of this week when the report from the sub
committee on engineer work Will be sub
mtted.