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Elgin’s building code rating has improved significantly since its last review, records show, moving the city ahead of the state average and potentially lowering insurance costs for new construction.
The city’s new Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule classification—issued by Verisk’s Insurance Services Office—is now a 4 for both residential and commercial properties, up from a 6 in 2018. The rating system runs from 1 to 10, with Class 1 representing exemplary commitment to building- code enforcement, city documents read.
According to Elgin’s Development Services Department, the city earned a score of 74.69 out of 100 for commercial construction and 67.79 for residential. By comparison, the Texas state average is 53.31 for commercial and 50.42 for residential.
Improvements contributing to the score increase included the adoption of newer building codes, well-certified staff and adequate staffing levels to ensure thorough plan review, according to the report. Lower scores were recorded in categories such as ongoing staff training hours, years of experience among inspectors and the formal tracking of inspection data.
Insurance companies may use the new rating to decide if they’ll offer lower rates on new buildings that get approved this year or later.
City staff said they plan to address the lower-scoring categories in future training and budget planning efforts.
