SPANISH FORT — The City Council is expected to adopt the newest version of the International Building Code.

The code, which has been approved by a number of cities in Baldwin County and is on the verge of being approved by the County Commission, is designed to place more stringent guidelines and create stronger structures.

The code, which city leaders are still studying, is expected to increase construction costs of a new home and decrease the cost of homeowner’s insurance.

“It is my understanding you are going to pay it if you build it and you are going to pay it if you don’t adopt these codes,” Mayor Joe Bonner said. “It will either be the builder or the insurance companies.”

During a public hearing Monday night, city leaders received a crash course on the code from Wakefield resident and Architect Linda Snapp.

Snapp, who spoke in favor of the code, is the president-elect of the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She served on a 12-person committee appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to provide legislation designed to establish a state building code.

That effort failed, according to Snapp, but she said work is underway to get the state to adopt the 2006 code in the next legislative session.

Snapp said during efforts to draft state legislation she heard from three insurance companies that revealed “if we had another major hurricane in this area last year, that they would have pulled out.”

She said the best way to guard against that possibility is to adopt the code.

“I have seen my insurance, like everybody else, go up,” she said. “I live in a house that does not come close to meeting the requirements.”

Bonner asked Snapp about the additional cost a homebuilder should expect from adoption of the new code.

“It is not that much more money and it will affect the insurance rates,” Snapp said.

“I think it is in the interest of the people building these houses,” she added. “Yes, they are paying more up front, but in the end if there is a hurricane they don’t lose everything that they have and their insurance rates are going to be less.”

“In the long run it may seem like a lot of money up front but in the overall scheme of things it’s really not,” she said.

Insurance rates are set according to a classification for a community provided by the Insurance Service Office.

The ISO will evaluate the area on several criteria before assigning the rating based foremost on the current version of Building Code in place.

Snapp said passage of the 2006 code will help keep those rates lower.

“What you are going to see is the insurance companies are not going to be pulling out like they are threatening to do,” she said. “What they will do is not raise the rates.”

City Building Official Bruce Renkert agreed with Snapp.

“We are not looking at a decrease in insurance rates; We are fighting an increase,” Renkert said.