Plan Review Fundamentals and Code Administration
Plan review is a regulatory act, not a design service
The examiner's job is to determine whether submitted documents demonstrate compliance with the edition of the code formally adopted by the jurisdiction - not to redesign the building. Know the administrative chain: submittal requirements, completeness check, technical review, comment/response cycles, permit issuance, inspection and acceptance testing, and certificate of occupancy.
Core concepts: the code edition in force (and any local amendments); the definition of the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ); what "approved" means (acceptable to the AHJ, not "correct" in the abstract); the scope of review versus deferred submittals (fire alarm shop drawings, sprinkler hydraulic calculations, truss design); and the equivalency or alternative-means pathway, which requires documented technical justification showing an equivalent level of safety, not merely a preference.
Traps that show up in questions
- Applying a newly published edition retroactively to a project submitted under the prior edition.
- Treating a manufacturer's cut sheet as a design document, or a sales brochure as a code citation.
- Accepting a performance-based design with no stated design fire, no validation method, and no equivalency finding.
- Missing that a deferred submittal was never returned - the permit closes with a gap.
- Confusing the fire code (operation, maintenance, hazardous processes) with the building/life safety code (construction, egress).
Rule of thumb
When a submittal cites a standard, check three things: the standard is referenced by the adopted code, the edition matches the code's referenced edition, and the topic is actually within that standard's scope. Worked example: a designer submits sprinkler calculations to the 2019 edition of NFPA 13 in a jurisdiction that adopted the 2022 edition. The calculations are not "wrong" - they are non-compliant with the document in force, and the reviewer should cite the adopted edition in the comment.