Success in Salt Lake City: How the Adoption of New Modular Construction Standards in Utah Could Affect the Entire Country [podcast transcript]
Success in Salt Lake City: How the Adoption of New Modular Construction Standards in Utah Could Affect the Entire Country
In this episode, MBI's Government Affairs Director Jon Hannah-Spacagna shares breaking news about the adoption of new modular-friendly building standards in Salt Lake City. He also speaks about how this news could affect other cities and states around the country. Lastly, Jon provides an update on other government affairs initiatives and previews his panel presentation at the upcoming 2021 World of Modular.
John McMullen
Hello and welcome to Inside Modular: The Podcast of Commercial Modular Construction brought to you by the Modular Building Institute.
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John McMullen
Hello, and welcome to Inside Modular: The Podcast of Commercial Modular Construction, brought to you by the Modular Building Institute. Welcome everyone. My name is John McMullen, and I'm the Marketing Director here at MBI. Today, I'm joined again by Jon Hannah-Spacagna, MBI’s Government Affairs Director. He's here to share some breaking news out of Salt Lake City, and to help us all understand what it could mean for the modular industry around the country. Jon, welcome back.
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Thanks for having me. Nice to be back.
John McMullen
So, let's get right to it. What can you tell me about what happened in Salt Lake City last night?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Well, it was a historic moment for us as a modular industry. Just a quick backstory. A few months ago, I was approached by some of our members who were working on a large project in Salt Lake City and had run into some barriers there because Salt Lake City did not have a modular program for anything that was built outside of the city limits. So, I started working with the building official, there Orion Goff, and we were able to present them with a working document that is soon to become an anti-standard of how to adopt a modular program for a city or state that doesn't have one. So last night at 9:53, Eastern Standard Time, this city council voted unanimously to adopt our proposal, and to be implemented immediately, which not only will benefit this project, but others in the future in the city. So, we're very thankful for their partnership and very grateful that now our industry has a huge city of over a million people that we now have access to.
John McMullen
That's fantastic and thanks for the late night. I know you had to stay up on that call. The adoption of these standards, does that pave the way for just a particular type of modular construction or is everything on the table now?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Yeah, everything's on the table now. It’s modular, whether it's relocatable, whether it’s permanent, it really opens up the whole door for our industry now in Salt Lake City, which is just fantastic.
John McMullen
So, tell me more about MBI’s partnership with the ICC. I know they were integral in forming these standards. How long have these standards been in the works and more importantly, why do they matter?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
So, our executive director, Tom Hardiman, has been part of a working committee now for probably about a year in working on this standard. So, this committee is put together by people in the industry that work with the ICC to make sure that they get the standard, right. So, it's now in the final phases, it just finished the second public comment period. What these standards do specifically for our industry, is allow us to open up markets like Salt Lake City, that don't have a program and aren't sure how to go about adopting one. So, this really gives them a plug and play guideline and soon to be standard that they can say, hey, we want to start a modular program. Here's the nuts and bolts of how you do that. So, it really is something that we hope to take and replicate throughout the country, just like Salt Lake City has practically already done.
John McMullen
Nice. For those who may not be as familiar with the ICC, or the International Code Council, who are they exactly and how does their work impact the modular construction industry?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
So, they set the building codes for everyone internationally. Then it's up to the states and cities to adopt them as they see fit. So, they're put out every three years, but it's up to the states and cities to adopt what they feel is comfortable, add amendments, things that may be specific to their area, whether it's for seismic issues or snow weight, things like that. Essentially, it gives them a guideline to adopt, so that all the buildings that are built are built to those codes. So, for modular specific we’re built to the code just like any other building would be, whether it's modular or regular construction, and it allows us to have a guide so that our folks that are building all over the country know what they need to build too as far as following the standard guidelines.
John McMullen
Very good. So, let's turn back to Salt Lake City for a moment. Now that the city council has agreed to adopt these modular friendly standards. What's next?
Related Reading:
Urban Areas Paving the Way for Modular Construction to Address Housing Needs
There’s a shortage of affordable housing across the United States. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that “Only 37 affordable and available rental homes exist for every 100 extremely low-income renter households” across the country. Furthermore, the organization found that no state or major metropolitan area has an adequate supply of rental housing for its lowest income renters.
There is good news, though. Two cities — Chicago and Salt Lake City — are removing obstacles so modular construction can do more to help address their housing shortages.
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
So, we're working with Salt Lake City right now. We’re planning to do a town hall with their building official Orien Golf to help our members understand as they implement this process, as we have many members that are anxious to get into Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City as a great need for new construction, whether it's for affordable housing or other needs. It allows more members to get in touch with them and understand the process, but also this will allow us to take this model that has yet to be published, which is somewhat unprecedented and go to other cities that are in the same need and say, look, here's what was done in Salt Lake City, here's a path for you to implement your own program, which is going to open up just numerous opportunities for our industry to continue to grow and have a guideline and a standard to work from.
John McMullen
Gotcha. So, the really the big takeaway for other cities, it sounds like now there's a plan. Now, there's a model that I can work from if I'm a city and I don't have a modular program. Now there's one to look to.
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Exactly. For a city the size of Salt Lake City to do this proactively before the standards have been published, speaks volumes to the work of like I said, Orion Goff in the city council to be proactive in seeing the vision and the opportunity with modular construction, and be willing to adopt these guidelines before they're even published.
John McMullen
Very nice. So, not only are we excited by this news, but there's really a whole lot going on in the world of government affairs, including a town hall that you're hosting tomorrow, in fact. What can you tell me about that?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Yeah, so we're hosting a town hall tomorrow with our Washington, DC lobbyists. That's Max Perkins and Justin Lewis and we'll be talking about all things that's going on at the federal level. We now have a new Congress, we have a new leader in the White House, we also have new cabinet members that are over seeing things like Department of Labor, FEMA, HUD. So, all these areas directly impact our industry. Even though we've already built relationships with folks that are still in those areas, but with the new Congress and the White House, in their agendas there could be things that roll out that impact our industry, both on a positive level, but also things we may need to work hard to defeat or to curb their impact on our industry to allow us to continue to grow. So, there'll be given us a full perspective of what have we seen so far and what to expect in 2021.
John McMullen
Very good. For those who can't join tomorrow's town hall, you're also presenting at the upcoming World of Modular. What will that presentation cover?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Yeah. So, we have our DC lobbyists will be part of that panel, along with myself, and then our New York lobbyist, as well as our California lobbyists. So, we'll be giving a perspective in each of those areas of things we're working on. We'll have a better idea of bills that will be coming out as California's last day to submit bills as this Friday. So, we'll be able to give an update on things we're working on in those specific areas, but also things outside of that, that we're working on that are more specific to certain states or cities that we're having conversations with, that are opening their doors to the modular industry.
John McMullen
You mentioned a town hall about Salt Lake City that that will be occurring a little bit later this year. What else have you got going on?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Well, this has already been a busy year for us, which is somewhat, I think, a benefit of last year that we really built a strong foundation and took the opportunity we had. Through the unfortunate things of the pandemic, it really brought to light the advantages that we could do in modular. So, we've been able to take that and grow that already this year, with opportunities we've had in Canada with a billion dollars being given to the modular industry for affordable housing. Taking those wins that we've had, and now grow them in 2021, with conversations with cities like San Jose, with the state of California with New York City. So we're building on those conversations, but we're also seeing things that we're having to defend our industry on, with bills that have already come out in New York, that would be very derogatory to our industry requiring prevailing wage union labor contracts. Similar things in California, and then also at the federal level with the Proact, which could impact our industry greatly. So even though we're having to play a little more defense this year than we have in the past, we're also continuing to push things forward and open up new markets like we did with Salt Lake City.
John McMullen
Very nice. Well Jon, I appreciate your time. One last thing, if anyone has any questions about government affairs, Salt Lake City, or any of the initiatives that MBI is working on, how should they get in touch?
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Yeah, just email me at jon@modular.org and I’d be glad to answer any questions at all. I'll say if they start to see things out there that may be going sideways on a project or a state or a city, the sooner I can get involved, the more I can have a quicker impact. The Salt Lake City issue we got involved a year after it started. Within a few months, we're able to have success. So, if you see something out there and you need our help, just let us know and we're here for you.
John McMullen
Very good. As always, we'll keep our events page on modular.org updated with townhall information. So, invite people to keep their eyes on that page and it sounds like it's going be a busy year. I'm looking forward to it.
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Yeah, absolutely. Last thing I'll say if you’re a member of MBI and you're not participating in our seals program, the purchase of those seals is what allows us to have lobbyists like we have in New York, California, DC, in areas that may come up that we're not expecting yet. So, I encourage you to support our sales program. It's on our website, on our member page. I encourage you to do that. Also, if you haven't signed up yet for World of Modular March 8 through 12th, now's a great time to do that as well.
John McMullen
Looking forward to that as well. Thanks again, Jon. I appreciate your time.
Jon Hannah-Spacagna
Thank you, John.
John McMullen
My name is John McMullen and this has been another episode of Inside Modular: The Podcast of Commercial Modular Construction. Until next time.