DSA IR 11B-8 - USE OF PREDETERMINED CONSTRUCTION TOLERANCE GUIDELINES FOR ACCESSIBILITY (with revisions issued through Jan. 2011)

1. LEGAL ISSUES: According to the California Attorney General’s office, developing guidelines for construction tolerances "…unnecessarily encourages contractors and others to deviate from the access regulations found in the California Building Code…." ¹

The California Attorney General’s office also indicated "we are concerned that local building officials and members of the general public, when they consult Construction Tolerance Guidelines,…may assume that they have been adopted by a state agency and therefore, have the force of state law, which they do not. Such reliance, in our view, may result in violations of the California Building Code and, possibly, litigation against local building officials and/or property owners." ¹

Separately, a United States District Court case discussed the term "conventional building industry tolerances" as follows:

"What is an acceptable ‘dimensional tolerance’ obviously will vary, depending in part upon the purpose for the standard and the technological capacity to closely adhere to the target dimensions." ²

¹ Letter from the State of California Department of Justice to the Orange Empire Chapter of the International Conference of Building Officials dated August 22, 2002.

² Independent Living Resources v. Oregon Arena Corporation