cooperative-compliance

January 3, 2024

By JD DeWitt, Paul Menard, Sabrina Preciado and RJ Jackson

At UC Davis Health, the governing approval to move facility projects forward is shared between three entities: the Fire Marshal’s Office (FMO), FP&D’s Building Department and the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAi). Each of these Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) has various responsibilities and jurisdictions throughout the design review and construction processes.

AHJS EXPLAINED

FMO: The Fire Marshal’s Office is responsible for managing compliance with the State Fire Prevention Code and other applicable fire safety laws, regulations and standards, and performing plan reviews and construction inspections.

UC Davis Health Fire Marshals are delegated fire prevention authorities by the California State Fire Marshal as well as HCAi. Unique to the UC system, our Fire Marshals work for and are hired directly by UC Davis Health and report on behalf of CalFire.

FP&D Building Department: The Building Department ensures new construction projects and tenant improvements comply with UC Policy, California Building Standards Codes and other Federal and State of California statutes and regulations. 

Team members include Certified Building Official Paul Menard, Building Department Coordinators Sabrina Preciado and Raquel (RJ) Jackson, Senior Mechanical Engineer Alex Musat and Senior Electrical Engineer Del Kirkish, who is retiring with his last day on Jan. 16, 2025.

HCAi: HCAi monitors the construction, renovation and seismic safety of California’s licensed hospitals, skilled nursing and patient care facilities. They work side by side with FMO in reviewing construction documents.

MILESTONE REVIEWS

During the design process, the Building Department and FMO participate in three milestone reviews—typically, at 95% schematic design, 95% design development and 50% construction documents. Both entities meet with the project delivery team and other key project participants to consult and provide feedback to ensure the construction documents follow the UC Davis Health campus design guidelines and standards, as well as determine its possible impact on existing building systems. In some cases, a preliminary milestone review will be conducted before design begins to discuss what issues may arise in legacy buildings with legacy conditions. 

FMO keeps the design team abreast of updates on the Title 24 – California Building Standards Code, which is updated every three years.

For HCAi projects, the Building Department primarily looks at the documents from the owner’s perspective, trying to understand how the proposed project will affect the existing building systems at UC Davis Health and how the design will perform over the long term. Since HCAi will review for code only, the Building Department reviews for issues FMO and HCAi does not, such as campus design guidelines and standards.

The milestone review process is informal, but mandatory. Feedback comments are not submitted through Accela, however, the reviews are still required by project delivery leadership. The project manager is responsible for setting up milestone reviews.

DOCUMENT SUBMITTAL, PLAN REVIEW AND STAMPING OUT

Due to the diligence of the milestone review process and cooperation between FMO and the Building Department, HCAi typically accepts the documents for review without having to return them at triage for 
administrative corrections and often approves the submitted construction documents more quickly. This unique early collaboration during the design process saves time from the typical back-and-forth feedback between HCAi and the project delivery team.

FMO and the Building Department work side-by-side with HCAi, simultaneously reviewing the same documents for their own code purposes. Once the construction documents are reviewed, approval follows the below process through Accela:

• Sabrina processes the construction documents, triages them and routes them to Building Department reviewers 

• Fire Prevention Specialist II, Susie Heuer routes the documents to FMO reviewers

• Once the documents are ready for approval, Sabrina routes them to Paul and FMO

• Paul stamps out

• FMO stamps out

• The documents are now approved!

CONSTRUCTION

Once construction begins, the roles of FMO and the Building Department shift. FMO becomes the AHJ on behalf of the state fire marshal, conducting inspections in tandem with the FP&D Inspections team (led by 
Kevin Brown) and reporting back to the project design team with updates, changes and points of failure. 

The Building Department continues to conduct plan reviews but only for Amended Construction Documents (ACDs) and Deferred Submittals (for example, fire alarms and fire sprinklers)—AKA revisions to the original approved construction documents. ACDs come up when construction starts for several reasons: discovering new site conditions, owner-requested changes and contractor-requested changes.

Often, if the size and scope of the submittal is appropriate, the reviews of ACDs and Deferred Submittals are done during over-the-counter plan reviews held every Thursday between 9 and 11 a.m. in the FSSB 3rd Floor conference room 3020. These time slots allow the design team direct access to the Building Department plan review team, as well as FMO plan reviewers to talk in person and work out any issues or comments for the subject submittal. 

FMO and the Building Department collaborate all the way through construction up until certificate of occupancy is reached.

A HALLMARK PROGRAM

We want to stress how unique this collaborative approach between AHJs is. Few other UC programs integrate the Building Department so early in the design process and in tandem with its FMO. The University of California Office of the President (UCOP) looks at our process as a template for the future of cooperative compliance, helping save both time and money while constructing facilities. Our joint process has been recorded in the FP&D Project Playbook, where it will continue to improve year after year.