February 5, 2013

Ms. Marjorie Holladay, Senior Attorney

The Florida Legislature

Joint Administrative Procedures Committee

680 Pepper Building

111 W. Madison Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1400

Re: Rule 61G20-3.015, F.A.C.

Dear Ms Holladay:

In response to your letter, dated December 21, 2012, the Florida Building Commission submits that it intends to publish a Notice of Change addressing the following amendments:

Summary of Statement of Estimated Regulatory

Costs and Legislative Ratification:

A notice of correction will be published to clarify that the proposed rule is not expected to require legislative ratification. In addition to the information provided in the attached SERC, the following is the specific information relied upon by the Commission in determining whether the rule is expected to require ratification:

This rule amendment is needed to help certain hurricane shutters/impact protective devices manufacturers to self-affirm their existing statewide approvals as meeting the updated 2010 edition of the Florida Building Code “the Code”, pursuant to section 553.842, Florida Statutes. The Code does not incorporate the ASTM E 1996-05; a testing standard which certain impact protective devices had tested to for compliance under the previous 2007 Code. By clarifying that the edition of ASTM E 1996-05 is equivalent to the testing standards editions that are incorporated in the 2010 Code (ASTM E 1996-02 and ASTM E 1996-06, with the exclusion of mullions) qualified hurricane shutters manufacturers will be able to self-affirm their existing approval as meeting the new edition of the code and therefore, they will be able to sell the affected products in their existing inventories without the need for additional product evaluation/revision. The hurricane shutters manufacturers have requested this rule amendment and have asked that it be accomplished by March 15, 212, when the new edition of the Florida Building Code went into effect. Without this amendment, certain hurricane shutters manufacturers will incur additional costs of approximately $1000 for the evaluation/revision of each affected product. This amendment will prevent certain hurricane shutters manufacturers from having to incur these additional costs for evaluating affected products. The Florida Building Commission’s Product Approval POC (Program Oversight Committee) met on January 5, 2012, and determined that the standards were equivalent (except with regard to mullions).

In summary, this rule amendment will have no effect on small counties, cities or construction/manufacturing industries as defined by s. 120.52, F.S and ultimately will reduce regulatory costs as noted above.

Rule Title: The correct title should read “Equivalence of Standards”. This title will be included in a Notice of Correction.

61G20-3.015(4)(a):

Agree. The word “windborne” should be capitalized for consistency with the title for both ASTM E 1996 -05 and ASTM E 1996 -06. This change will be made prior to filing with the Department of State.

61G20-3.015(4)(b):

If you have any questions or need me to elaborate further on any of the above modifications, please call me at 850.717.1244. Thank you.

Sincerely,

R. Kathleen Brown-Blake

Assistant General Counsel