NORTH CAROLINA — A diverse group of public officials is calling to overturn the state’s ban on building code updates ahead of hurricane season. They argue the policy will threaten public safety, cut down federal grant funding, and increase homeowner insurance costs.
READ MORE: NC Home Builders Association pushes building code reform, gives maximum donations to local officials
Governor Roy Cooper vetoed H.B. 488 — a bill banning proposed energy efficiency updates for residential homes until 2031 — last July. The General Assembly overrode his veto a month later. Now, Cooper says the state is starting to see its negative impact.
“Legislative Republicans moved North Carolina backward by recklessly blocking new building codes that would require new homes to be more resilient and efficient,” Cooper said in a Thursday press release. “As a result, it will become harder to find home insurance and we’re missing out on tens of millions of dollars in federal recovery funds. That’s a lose-lose for our state, particularly when storms hit.”
The governor’s office blamed the bill for disqualifying North Carolina from federal grants, including an Inflation Reduction Act program meant to help states update their building codes.
North Carolina received $102 million in federal funding from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program in 2023. The state is anticipated to receive around $30 million in 2024; the governor’s office stated the figure will continue to decline because the state can no longer meet FEMA’s residential code requirements.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey echoed Cooper’s concerns and emphasized the bill’s impact on homeowner insurance rates.
“If it’s not immediate, it will be soon,” he told Port City Daily. “And it will impact the entire state, not just the coastal areas.”
The North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents the state’s insurance industry, cited storm risk and climate change in its request for an insurance rate hike as high as 99% for coastal areas earlier this year. Causey rejected the proposal and seeks to negotiate it down in court this October.
An April 2024 Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety report described North Carolina’s new limitations on building code updates as “the most concerning negative action” taken among 18 hurricane-prone states assessed since 2021.
Causey argued North Carolina should be taking actions like Alabama — which implemented a building code-mandated fortified roof program — to address the threat of major storms and exorbitant insurance increases. Alternatively, a provision in H.B. 488 bans local governments from requiring roof sheathing inspections unless they are exposed to winds over 140 miles per hour.
“A few years ago we were on the right track,” Causey said. “But, for whatever reason, over the last two or three years, we’ve slipped down in standings for building codes.”
The North Carolina Fire Marshals’ Association and the State Firefighters Association similarly warned H.B. 488 would hurt North Carolina’s ability to recover from natural disasters and limit federal grants to fire departments.
“Anytime you weaken codes instead of strengthening them the fire service gets concerned,” Causey told PCD. “They’ve seen it too many times.”
The Department of Insurance had authority over the Office of State Fire Marshal for 80 years until the General Assembly made it an independent agency last year. Causey said he was “blindsided” by the initiative and didn’t understand lawmakers’ motive.
“Nobody’s ever told me why,” he said. “Nobody’s ever discussed it with me.”
Beyond stalling reforms, H.B. 488 also stripped authority from the governor-appointed Building Code Council — which approved new proposed efficiency standards after two years of study. The law allowed for the creation of a separate legal body to determine residential code updates after the moratorium. The General Assembly will appoint six of the Residential Code Council’s 13 members in 2026.
The North Carolina Fire Marshals’ Association “implored everyone” to consider the consequences of a second building code reform bill, S.B. 166, vetoed by Cooper earlier this month. The North Carolina Home Builders Association — the primary lobbyist behind H.B. 488 last year — designated it as the top legislative priority for 2024.
“Proposed changes in S.B. 166 give way to a disturbing trend where code protections are being mandated in general statutes by legislators who lack the expertise in these areas,” the fire marshals wrote.
Among the group’s concerns is a proposed reorganization of the Building Code Council that would remove expert positions, including architects and fire code officials. It would shift the 17-member governor-appointed body to 13 members, six of whom would be appointed by the General Assembly.
“When things like this come up, we need the legislators to listen to all sides,” Causey said. “They certainly need to listen to the fire chiefs and fire marshals around the state and the insurance industry, in addition to the home builders. But my fear is they don’t listen to all sides.”
Emails obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute show the North Carolina Home Builders Association wrote the 2023 bill with Rep. Mark Brody (R-Anson) and legislative aides. The General Assembly exempted themselves from public records requests later that year.
Brody is a member of the North Carolina Home Builders Association, the owner of Clayton Ryan Homes LLC, and chair of the Local Government Land Use, Planning, and Development Committee. The lawmaker gave $1,000 to NCHBA in 2022 and has received $28,750 in campaign contributions from its PAC throughout his career.
“He has served as the sponsor for NCHBA’s Building Code Regulatory Reform bills,” NCHBA wrote in a 2021 blog post. “Thank you Representative Mark Brody for your dedication!”
NCHBA executive vice president Tim Minton told PCD Saturday that NCHBA supported building code updates to promote safety in H.B. 488 but advocated postponing proposed energy efficiency updates to maintain housing affordability.
“The energy code updates were going to increase the cost of the average home in North Carolina by over $20,000 while only achieving a maximum of $400 per year in energy savings,” he said.
Minton also said S.B. 166 would still include fire representatives on the new residential and commercial building code councils. He said the Office of the State Fire Marshal spoke in favor of the bill as it worked its way through the legislature; PCD reached out to the agency to ask if their views had changed since raising concerns in May but did not receive a response by press.
Minton addressed concerns regarding Brody’s membership in a lobbying organization and co-writing legislation with that group on their behalf. He said lobbyists traditionally work with elected officials on legislation and amendments, but didn’t affirm if the NCHBA wrote S.B. 166 or other recent legislation.
“Representative Brody always works with full transparency in being a housing expert and it takes 170 members of the legislature to determine if a policy recommendation is good for North Carolina,” he said. “Representative Brody should be applauded for his efforts to help keep housing affordable.”
He attributed the state’s decrease in FEMA grants to a broader decline in national FEMA spending rather than H.B. 488, which he argued did not negatively impact safety, grant opportunities, or insurance rates.
Cooper, Causey, and groups including the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association dispute the argument. NCSEA cited a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study finding inefficient building drives up electricity bills and carbon emissions. The group also noted a 2022 Department of Energy study that found the North Carolina Building Code Council’s proposed update would have added around $5,000 to the cost of a home but save $400 in annual energy bills.
Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Joel Scata argued NCHBA’s real motive is profit.
“Affordable homes shouldn’t mean something that’s built cheaply in an unsafe location,” he told PCD last month. “Affordable homes really should be homes that someone can live in long-term without having to worry about becoming at risk of repeatedly being damaged because it was set up poorly.”
NCHBA spent $346,458 lobbying in 2023, according to Secretary of State records. Local lawmakers who voted for the building code reform bills have also received significant donations from NCHBA, including:
- Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick) — $42,300
- Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Pender) — $24,900
- Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) — $14,400
- Rep. Charles Miller (R-Brunswick) — $2,625
- Rep. Carson Smith (R-Pender) — $2,600
- Rep. Frank Iler (R-Brunswick) — $7,500
- Rep. Ted Davis Jr. (R-New Hanover) — $9,825
PCD reached out to the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association to ask if it supported the two building code reform bills but did not receive a response by press. Executive officer and New Hanover County planning board member Cameron Moore has donated $4,730 to NCHBA.
Rep. Deb Butler (R-New Hanover) criticized NCHBA’s building code agenda and argued it was particularly damaging to coastal communities like Wilmington.
“They’re looking for the biggest profit motive rather than the natural environment and people’s pocketbooks,” she told PCD Friday. “It just seems they always come down and resist more innovative and resilient practices.”
Butler cited industry support for a 2012 bill, H.B. 819, that banned state agencies from using sea-level rise data in coastal development policy until 2016. Minton could not confirm if NCHBA supported the bill since he did not work at the organization at the time, but said he could not find NCHBA policy papers related to H.B. 819 from 2012 which usually indicates the group did not take a position.
NC-20 — the now-dissolved lobby group behind the legislation — included several members of NCHBA chapter organizations. Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association staff members Cameron Moore and Tyler Newman are former lobbyists for NC-20 and the group’s president Willo Kelly was a lobbyist for the Outer Banks Homeowners Association.
[Update: This article has been updated to include comments from the North Carolina Home Builders Association and to correct two sentences referencing the North Carolina State Fire Marshalls’ Association instead of the Office of State Fire Marshal, a separate organization. PCD regrets this error.]
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