2. a. The Commissioner of Community Affairs is hereby directed to develop a building code specifically designed to foster cost-effective housing rehabilitation, while ensuring through its provisions that necessary health and safety requirements are met. The code shall be designed for use throughout the State but shall have particular application to the older cities of the State, and the housing types characteristic of those cities. The code shall supplement the State Uniform Construction Code, adopted pursuant to P.L.1975, c.217 (C. 52:27D-119 et seq.). The commissioner may promulgate this code as a separate document from the State Uniform Construction Code, or may, if he finds it feasible and useful, incorporate its provisions directly into, and make them an integral part of, that code.

b. In developing the code, the commissioner is directed to investigate any model codes, such as Chapter 34, “Existing Structures,” of the “BOCA National Building Code/1993” and experiences of other code enforcement jurisdictions, to consult with individuals and organizations experienced in the rehabilitation of low and moderate income housing in New Jersey’s urban areas, and conduct research as may be relevant to the purposes of this act.

c. The commissioner is further directed to undertake a study of the desirability of authorizing a procedure under which, in adopting the provisions of the standard or model codes upon which the State Uniform Construction Code is based, discretion may be accorded to the commissioner to modify, amplify or otherwise depart from any such provisions, without exceeding any of them in stringency, for the purpose of accommodating this State’s construction code to the needs of the State and its various regions, particularly with respect to encouraging the provision of housing affordable to persons and families of low and moderate income.

d. The commissioner shall, pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C. 52:14B-1 et seq.), promulgate the code prescribed in subsection a. of this section within six months of the effective date of this act; or, if he finds it impracticable to do so, shall make a written report to the Legislature setting forth the grounds of the impracticability and making such recommendations for further legislative action as he may deem likely to remove those grounds. Within the same period of time the commissioner shall also make his report and recommendations to the Legislature on the study directed by subsection c. of this section.

L.1995,c.78,s.2.