October 11, 2018

Doug Orth, Council Chair Washington State Building Code Council P.O. Box 41449 Olympia, WA 98504

Dear Chairman Orth:

We, as members of the Legislature, are writing to express our support for the Washington State Building Code Council adopting the code changes for mass timber buildings at your October 12th meeting.

As you are aware, Senate Bill 5450 passed with overwhelming support during the 2018 Legislative Session, and was signed into law by Governor Inslee. It has come to our attention that you are planning to take action on early adoption of the proposed International Code Council’s Code Proposal for Tall Wood Building, created under the auspices of the ICC Tall Wood Building Ad-Hoc Committee. Thank you for taking this crucial step to support mass timber in Washington State.

We appreciate the Building Code Council’s willingness to work on mass timber code changes in the past and going forward. Adopting these building code changes without delay will ensure that Washington State is on the forefront of mass timber production and utilization in the United State. The economic and environmental advantage of adopting these changes sooner rather than later cannot be understated.

Thank you for your consideration of our request. We look forward to seeing the results of your October 12th meeting. Do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Senator Senator 21st Legislative District 24th Legislative District

Representative Mike Chapman Representative Brian Blake 24th Legislative District 19th Legislative District

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Senator Maralyn Chase Senator John McCoy 32nd Legislative District 38th Legislative District

Senator Guy Palumbo Senator 1st Legislative District 35th Legislative District

Senator Dean Takko Representative Steve Tharinger 19th Legislative District 24th Legislative District

Senator Senator Hans Zeiger 17th Legislative District 25th Legislative District

cc: Washington State Building Council Members