Significant discussion focused on the Single Egress (SE) Task Group’s recommendation to align definitions of building height with other areas in the code (eg: NBC sct. 3.2.6) to avoid the requirements of "high buildings", particularly by measuring building height from grade rather than from the top of the first storey. The committee was generally supportive and requested explanatory annex material be drafted to clarify intent.

The committee also reviewed several elevator-related archetypes for SE buildings, and approved further exploration of an option allowing an elevator to open directly into an exit, rather than needing a separate elevator vestibule. The Task Group argued this could improve accessibility and is in fact more safe than other already permissible alternatives (eg: opening directly into suites). CHBA encouraged the committee to support increasing optionality while keeping the elevator concepts voluntary. The committee discussed how this might also affect multiple egress buildings, noting this would affect many other portions of the code. CHBA supported further exploring multiple egress impacts separately, while not delaying this committee's work in support of single exit buildings. 

Other updates included a recommendation from the penetrations working group to disband after reaching an impasse on fire damper requirements, and to consolidate horizontal requirements into the vertical requirements (by deleting the word "vertical" from NBC 3.1.9.3.(3) ) for consistency.

Staff introduced a new web-based comment tracking form to manage reviews of 14 upcoming Code Change Requests. Members were asked to submit comments by the end of September. The next meeting is scheduled for October 27-28 in Vancouver.

The full agenda package is available online here: 2030-04 AgendaPkgNMCC-FLS_101.pdf

For more information, contact Derek Satnik at derek.satnik@chba.ca