Re: Location, location, location!
?Where? I?m from is fairly irrelevant. Laguna Hills is approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. My home base has been Southern California for the last 35 years, but the first time I was actually involved with designing a SoCal facility was 1989. I?ve been the ?Engineer of Record,? ?In Responsible Charge,? ?Duly Authorized Individual (a foreign term),? ?Chartered Design Professional (another one),? and a few terms I can?t remember in over 70 jurisdictions over the last 28 years. On one project, I was the lead electrical engineer for over 100 service stations built in 9 different states ? no two were totally alike.
It?s one of the reasons I?m fairly sensitive to ?local amendments.? Most are quite reasonable and many are downright helpful. I really appreciate such things as dictating local design ambient temperatures for example.
Beyond securing copies of the local amendments, I have also finally learned how to ferret out ?unique? interpretations. You can?t just ask if they have any since many AHJs think they do things the way everyone does ? or certainly the way everyone should. The truth is I have usually learned more and definitely better. Many of those ?unique? interpretations come with tremendous insight. Some are strange, but even then it is usually not without reason - and I still learn something.