[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 206 (Tuesday, October 26, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57736-57737]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-27839]



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Part III





Department of Housing and Urban Development





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Notice of Public Meeting and Solicitation of Comments

  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 206 / Tuesday, October 26, 1999 / 
Notices  

[[Page 57736]]



DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-4540-N-01]


Notice of Public Meeting and Solicitation of Comments

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal 
Opportunity, HUD.

ACTION: Notice of meeting and solicitation of comments.

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SUMMARY: The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development 
(HUD or the Department) announces a public meeting and requests public 
comments on a draft report developed by Steven Winter Associates (SWA) 
which identifies the variances between the Fair Housing Act's design 
and construction requirements and the:
     National Building Code, Building Officials and Code 
Administrators International (BOCA) 1996 edition;
     Uniform Building Code, International Conference of 
Building Officials (ICBO) 1997 edition;
     Standard Building Code, Southern Building Code Congress 
International (SBCCI) 1997 edition; and
     International Building Code First Draft, International 
Code Council (ICC) November 1997; Proposed International Building Code 
2000, International Code Council (IBC-2000) Chapters 10 and 11, 
Appendix to Chapter 11, and Section 3407 (1999).
    The draft report discusses only variances that do not meet the Fair 
Housing Act's design and construction requirements. As stated in the 
BACKGROUND section of this notice, the draft report is a precursor to a 
final report that HUD will deliver to the United States House of 
Representatives by December 31, 1999, as directed in the Committee 
Report of the FY 2000 HUD/VA Appropriations bill. After receipt and 
review of public comments, the Department will make its final revisions 
to the draft report and then issue the final report.

DATES: The meeting will be held on November 10, 1999, and will commence 
at 2:00 p.m. EST and continue until 5:00 p.m. EST. Written public 
comments will be received prior to the meeting, during the meeting, and 
after the meeting until the close of business (6:00 p.m. EST) on 
Monday, November 15, 1999.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place at the United States Department 
of Housing and Urban Development headquarters, 451 7th Street, SW, 
Washington, DC 20410 in the south side of the cafeteria on the ground 
floor of the HUD building. The Department of Housing and Urban 
Development is located at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro stop. The meeting 
will also be broadcast in HUD field offices. The addresses for the HUD 
field offices and telephone numbers for the Senior Community Builders 
may be obtained from www.hud.gov/directory/ascdir3.html or from Juanina 
Harris at the address and telephone number listed in the 
``RESERVATIONS'' section of this notice.

Accessibility

    The HUD headquarters building and field offices are accessible. The 
meeting in HUD headquarters will be interpreted in sign language and 
presented in open and real-time captioning. The broadcast will be open-
captioned on television monitors in the HUD field offices with the 
exception of the following offices. The broadcast is available for 
listening only in Burlington, Vermont; Flint, Michigan; Wilmington, 
Delaware; and Springfield, Illinois. In Camden, New Jersey; Fargo, 
North Dakota; Memphis, Tennessee; Shreveport, Louisiana; Spokane, 
Washington; and Tucson, Arizona, the broadcast will be shown on 
computer monitors. If you plan to attend the broadcast in one of those 
offices, please notify the Senior Community Builder seven days before 
the meeting if you need the services of a sign language interpreter.
    Hearing or speech-impaired individuals may access any of the HUD 
headquarters and field telephone numbers referenced in this notice via 
TTY/TDD by calling the toll-free federal Information Relay Service at 
1-800-877-8339.

Reservations

    If you would like to attend or view the meeting, you should make a 
reservation by 5:00 p.m. EST on November 8, 1999.
    To make a reservation to attend the meeting at HUD headquarters in 
Washington, DC, you should telephone Juanina Harris at (202) 619-8046, 
extension 6979, with the following information: your name; the 
organization you are representing, if any; any reasonable 
accommodations you may need to attend or view the meeting; whether you 
intend to present oral comments; and the anticipated length of your 
comments. This telephone number is not toll-free. Commenters will be 
allowed no more than ten and, depending on the number of commenters, as 
few as five minutes to make their comments.
    To make a reservation to view or listen to the broadcast of the 
meeting at a HUD field office, you should telephone the Senior 
Community Builder at the HUD field office where you would like to view 
or listen to the broadcast. You should provide the following 
information to the Senior Community Builder: your name; the 
organization you are representing, if any; and any reasonable 
accommodations you may need to view or listen to the broadcast of the 
meeting. The field office telephone numbers are not toll-free.
    Alternatively, you may make a reservation to attend the meeting or 
to view or listen to the broadcast by using the registration form found 
at hud.gov/fhe/modelcodes, and following the instructions on the form.

Submission of Comments

    Written comments should be submitted to Cheryl Kent, Director, 
Program Compliance and Disability Rights Support Division at 451 
Seventh Street, SW, Room 5240, Washington, DC 20410-0500. Written 
comments will also be accepted at the public meeting. Written comments 
must be submitted by close of business (6:00 p.m. EST) on Monday, 
November 15, 1999.

Location of Documents

    The HUD policy statement and draft report are located at 
www.hud.gov/fhe/modelcodes. The Fair Housing Act, the Fair Housing Act 
regulations, and the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines can also be 
obtained through links provided at this web site. Hard or Braille 
copies of the HUD policy statement and draft report may be requested 
from Ms. Harris at the telephone number or address listed in the 
``RESERVATIONS'' section of this notice.
    The Department recognizes that this report is designed to provide 
technical assistance to model code organizations and thus, because the 
report is responding to code language, it may be using terms unfamiliar 
to the general public. For this reason, the Department has arranged to 
have all of the source documents that SWA and the Department used in 
the analysis available to the public. The original and revised industry 
matrices that SWA and the Department reviewed are available at 
www.intlcode.org/fairhousing. You may also request a hard copy of the 
original and revised industry matrices from Ms. Harris at the telephone 
number or address listed in the ``RESERVATIONS'' section of this 
notice. The model code organizations have agreed to provide free of 
charge access to the chapters of the model codes that SWA and the 
Department reviewed. ANSI-A117.1 1992 and ANSI-A117.1 1998 are 
available for

[[Page 57737]]

purchase at that web address. ANSI-A117.1-1986 is out of print and not 
available except in the HUD headquarters library at 451 Seventh St., 
S.W., and at HUD Fair Housing HUBs in the following locations: New 
York, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; Fort Worth, 
Texas; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Chicago, 
Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 
Denver, Colorado.
    Copies of all the relevant documents are also available for viewing 
at the HUD Library at 451 Seventh St., SW, Washington, DC 20410. To 
gain admission to the HUD Library you must present identification to 
the security guards and ask to visit the library. Photocopying in the 
HUD library is limited to 40 pages and all of the documents, with the 
exception of the HUD policy statement and the draft report, are 
copyrighted and therefore not available for photocopying.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cheryl Kent, Director, Program 
Compliance and Disability Rights Support Division, Department of 
Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW, Room 5240, 
Washington, DC 20410-0500; telephone (202) 708-2333, extension 7058. 
(This telephone number is not toll-free.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    In December 1997, the Council of American Building Code Officials 
(CABO) submitted to the Department a matrix (``the industry matrix'') 
that compared the four model building codes referenced in the SUMMARY 
section of this notice to the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines (56 
FR 9472-9515) (``the Accessibility Guidelines''). In response, the 
Department retained the services of SWA to analyze the industry matrix 
and to identify variances between the model building codes and the Fair 
Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604; the Fair Housing Act Regulations, 24 CFR 
100.205, and the Accessibility Guidelines, 56 FR 9472-9515. The 
Department also requested that SWA draft recommendations that code 
organizations could use to conform their codes with the Fair Housing 
Act, the Fair Housing Act Regulations, and the Accessibility 
Guidelines. SWA and the Department did not limit their review 
exclusively to the industry matrices or the Accessibility Guidelines. 
The review compared certain relevant chapters of each code with the 
Fair Housing Act, the Fair Housing Act Regulations, the Accessibility 
Guidelines, and ANSI-A117.1 1986, 1992, and 1998.
    The Department is not promulgating any new technical requirements 
or standards by way of this draft report. This draft report and the 
final report will serve solely to respond to the model building code 
organizations' request for technical assistance and to provide 
technical assistance to other interested parties. This request for 
comment on the draft report is not a solicitation for changes to the 
design and construction requirements of the Act, its Regulations, or 
the Accessibility Guidelines.
    Since the industry matrix was submitted to the Department, in 
December 1997, new editions of the BOCA and SBCCI codes have been 
published. Additionally, CABO indicated that there is a movement to 
fold all of the model building codes into one, the International 
Building Code. After consultation with CABO, CABO submitted a revised 
matrix to include the available proposed chapters of the Final Report 
for IBC-2000. The Final Report for IBC-2000 has not been published; 
however, the Department was able to obtain Chapter 10, Chapter 11, the 
Appendix to Chapter 11, and Section 3407 (1999) and has included an 
analysis of these in the draft report.
    The United States House of Representatives Appropriations Committee 
issued a Report accompanying the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban 
Development Appropriations bill, HR-106-286 (Aug. 3, 1999). The 
Committee directed the Department to complete its review of the 
industry matrix and issue a policy statement by December 31, 1999. The 
Department intends to meet this deadline; however, prior to finalizing 
the report to Congress, the Department seeks public comment on the 
identification of variances and the recommendations contained in the 
draft report. Department staff have carefully reviewed and commented on 
the draft report and would like to hear from persons with disabilities, 
organizations representing persons with disabilities, code officials, 
home builders, and other interested parties prior to finalizing the 
report.
    The draft report focuses only on the areas where the respective 
codes do not meet the requirements of the Fair Housing Act, the Fair 
Housing Act Regulations, the Accessibility Guidelines, ANSI-A117.1 
1986, ANSI-A117.1 1992, or ANSI-A117.1 1998. If a particular provision 
of a code is not discussed, then the reader should presume that the 
position of SWA and the Department is that the provision meets the 
requirements of the Fair Housing Act even if the wording of the code 
provision and the Fair Housing Act requirements are not identical.

The November 10, 1999 Meeting

    The November 10, 1999 meeting will be open to persons who register 
in advance. Attendance may be limited to the space available. A thirty-
minute presentation by SWA will commence the meeting. The remainder of 
the time will be used for HUD officials to listen to public comments on 
the draft report. Members of the public may present oral comments 
during the meeting, to the extent that time permits, and file written 
comments with the Department for its consideration. Commenters will be 
limited to no more than ten minutes, and if there are numerous 
participants, as few as five minutes to make an oral statement. Written 
comments should be submitted to Cheryl Kent at the address listed in 
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION section of this notice or to the registrar 
at the public meeting. The transcript of the meeting will be available 
for public inspection and copying by requesting them from Ms. Harris.
    The Department will consider all comments received by close of 
business (6:00 EST) on November 15, 1999 and will publish its final 
report by December 31, 1999.

    Dated: October 20, 1999.
Eva M. Plaza,
Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
[FR Doc. 99-27839 Filed 10-25-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-28-P