Broward County Board of Rules & Appeals Discusses Proposed Guidelines at BDA Committee Meeting

Broward County

Posted on September 19, 2019
Chief Perdue represented SBC and its members at this important meeting

The Safer Buildings Coalition, along with several of our member organizations, attended the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals BDA Committee meeting yesterday, September 17th in Plantation, FL. Representatives of the local Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) were also in attendance. Chairman Rice took the group through version 1 of their proposed Radio Communications Enhancement System (RCES) Guidelines.  

It was stressed several times during the meeting that these are truly guidelines; they are not writing new code language. As a result, the words "shall and/or required" were removed from the document. As it relates to fire rating, Broward staff believes that the construction elements of all risers, BDA cable connection rooms, pathway survivability raceways and fire-rated wall penetrations shall be reviewed and field inspected by the structural department for every BDA installation. 

Your SBC Codes & Standards workgroup is currently compiling its comments for submittal during the next phase of the Broward BDA Committee’s work. The SBC will continue to monitor and work with the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals BDA Committee in an effort to address issues or concerns that impact the design, installation or inspection of in-building public safety communications enhancement systems.

As mentioned in the Safer Buildings Coalition notification that went out earlier this week, the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals has extended the deadline for submitting feedback on the Radio Communications Enhancement System (RCES) Guidelines to Tuesday, Sept. 24th.

If you want your voice to be heard, please submit your written comments to one of the email addresses listed below:

Chair David Rice: [email protected]
Mr. Bryan Parks: [email protected]
Mr. Kenneth Castronovo: [email protected]