Mississippi building code plan review: the State Uniform Construction Code, coastal counties, the State Fire Marshal, and ASHRAE 90.1-2016

Which Mississippi codes apply to a set of drawings?

Mississippi has a statewide minimum, but counties and cities enforce it. Section 1 of Senate Bill 2378 of 2014, effective August 1, 2014 and codified as Section 17-2-4 (the Attorney General’s January 9, 2024 opinion quotes it), says that except as Section 17-2-1(1) provides, a county board of supervisors or municipal governing authority shall adopt and amend as minimum codes, as the State Uniform Construction Code, one of the last three adopted editions of the International Building Code and of the International Residential Code, with any appendices as adopted and amended by the Mississippi Building Codes Council, and other codes for electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire, and fuel gas work as the council adopts them. The IRC adoption excludes provisions that require a sprinkler system in a new or existing one- or two-family dwelling, and a county or city may adopt codes that are not less stringent. Subsection (3) let a board or governing authority choose not to be subject to the section by resolution within 120 days, and the Insurance Department’s uniform building codes page gives the deadline as November 30, 2014 and asks each county and city to report its code policy. The Attorney General’s opinion reads the section as mandatory for a jurisdiction that did not opt out and finds no provision for exemptions from it. The section does not reach the structures that Sections 17-2-7 and 17-2-9 exempt from local enforcement, as amended by the same bill: farm structures whose owner files an affidavit of farm use, industrial facilities in the listed North American Industry Classification System sectors (manufacturing, sectors 31-33, utilities, telecommunications, pipelines, bulk stations, and natural gas processing), buildings on nonpublic fairgrounds and the Neshoba County Fairgrounds, private unattached hunting or fishing camps with an owner’s affidavit, and manufactured housing built to the federal standards. Both sections keep floodplain management ordinances needed for the National Flood Insurance Program in force for those structures. Two state agencies add their own layers: the State Fire Marshal promulgates and enforces the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code under Sections 45-11-101 through 45-11-111, quoted on its Fire Code Enforcement page, and the Mississippi Development Authority adopts energy standards under Section 57-39-21.

No single edition applies statewide. Section 17-2-3, as amended by House Bill 1385 of 2011, has the Mississippi Building Codes Council adopt by reference and amend only one of the last three editions of the IBC, the IRC (with IRC Appendix J, Existing Buildings and Structures, adopted by the statute itself), and other electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire, and fuel gas codes as discretionary statewide minimum codes, and bars the council from requiring sprinklers in one- or two-family dwellings while letting counties and cities adopt codes that require sprinklers in any structure. No published adoption record from the council was found for this guide, so ask the building department which editions it treats as the last three and which council amendments it applies. Local adoptions read for this guide show the spread: the City of Flowood adopted the 2021 IBC, IRC, IFC, IMC, IPC, and International Property Maintenance Code, the 2014 National Electrical Code, and NFPA 101-2021 by an ordinance dated May 1, 2023, deleting the IRC dwelling-unit sprinkler section P2904 and IBC Section 423 on storm shelters, requiring one-hour protection or NFPA 13 sprinklers for wood truss and wood I-beam floor and roof assemblies in Type IV and V construction, and barring Types III, IV, and V and requiring NFPA 13 sprinklers for transient R-1 occupancies and R-4 care facilities housing six or more; the City of Biloxi’s notice reports Ordinances 2583, 2584, and 2585, approved June 10, 2025, adopting applicable portions of the 2024 IBC, the ICC 600-2020 standard for residential construction in high-wind regions, and applicable portions of the 2024 IFC; and a 2025 City of Diamondhead draft ordinance in a council packet, unsigned, would adopt the 2024 IBC, IRC, IMC, IPC, IFGC, ISPSC, IEBC, IECC, IPMC, and IFC and the 2023 NEC, with the IRC appendices listed under their two-letter 2024 designations, so confirm how a jurisdiction maps the statute’s Appendix J reference.

The State Fire Marshal’s Mississippi Fire Prevention Code regulation, 19 Miss. Admin. Code Part 7, Chapter 7, effective January 1, 2025, bases the code on the most current edition of the International Fire Code, adopts it for every county and city that has not adopted its own fire prevention code meeting the regulation, and uses the most recent IBC and IRC where they affect how the IFC applies. Its Fire Code Enforcement and plan review pages carry a notice that the office adopted the 2024 IFC and IBC as of July 1, 2024, six months before the regulation’s effective date, and Rule 7.04 says the version that applies to plans is the one in effect when the office approves them, so state the edition on the drawings and confirm it with the office for a set approved near either date. Rule 7.08 still describes an annual review of Standard Fire Prevention Code editions from the Southern Building Code Congress International, the predecessor the regulation says became the International Code Council.

Energy follows Section 57-39-21 as amended by Senate Bill 2308 of 2026, effective June 30, 2026: the Mississippi Development Authority adopts energy code standards in accordance with ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2016 for buildings with heating, cooling, or hot water systems, including public assembly, educational, office, and institutional buildings, hotels, stores, restaurants and other commercial buildings, office space in industrial plants, and buildings owned by the State or a political subdivision. Exempt are buildings with a peak design energy rate under 3.4 Btu per hour per square foot or 1.0 watt per square foot, buildings not heated or cooled by fuel, mobile homes, privately owned noncommercial buildings whose arrangement does not conflict with federal law, and buildings owned or leased by the United States government. The authority has no enforcement role: local governing authorities adopt rules and penalties and may charge an inspection fee of up to $150, and the Bureau of Building provides for compliance in state-owned buildings. The section is repealed after July 1, 2029 unless extended. The authority’s Office of Energy page describes the standard as covering buildings except low-rise residential buildings; a local ordinance can still adopt the IECC, as the Diamondhead draft does. Modular homes follow the Insurance Department’s Factory-Built Homes rules, 19 Miss. Admin. Code Part 7, Chapter 3, effective July 1, 2026, which name the 2024 NEC, IBC, IRC, IMC, IPC, and an International Gas Code, and SSTD 10, the hurricane-resistant residential construction standard, or ASCE 7. All checked November 8, 2026.

Most private projects are reviewed by the city or county building department that adopted the code, which Section 17-2-5, as amended by House Bill 753 of 2007, makes responsible for enforcing it; counties and cities may contract with other governmental entities or certified third-party providers to issue permits and enforce state building codes, and the council may help arrange those services on a written request. Ask whether the jurisdiction opted out in 2014 and what it has adopted since; the Insurance Department’s page collects that information through a form but does not list the results. Gulfport’s Building Code Services page, for example, posts application forms, an online drop box, and flood information but does not list its adopted editions.

The coast has its own statute. Section 17-2-1, enacted by House Bill 1406 of 2006, made Jackson, Harrison, Hancock, Stone, and Pearl River counties and their municipalities enforce, on an emergency basis, the wind and flood mitigation requirements of the 2003 IRC and IBC until each adopted the latest IBC and IRC as minimum codes, and let each board or city choose not to be subject to it by resolution within 60 days. Coastal ordinances fill in the design data the model codes leave to the jurisdiction: the Diamondhead draft enters a 150 mph wind design speed, a windborne debris zone, and the Hancock County flood insurance study in IRC Table R301.2, and Biloxi adopted ICC 600 for high-wind residential construction. Flood rules sit beside the building code: MEMA is the state’s designated agency for the National Flood Insurance Program, with 335 participating communities and 28 in the Community Rating System, and each community’s floodplain ordinance governs construction in A, AE, V, and VE zones, substantial improvements, and additions. Take the design flood elevation, the elevation certificate, and the flood-resistant details from that ordinance and the community’s flood map.

State buildings follow a different route. The State Fire Marshal’s plan review page says all state buildings, state agency-owned buildings, and state-funded buildings must submit plans to the office before construction, and that it can review any other building on request; Rule 7.04 requires the office’s approval before a building permit for every building in its statutory scope and lets architects and engineers submit an affidavit of compliance instead of plans on request. The request form charges no fee for a state agency or a church and $400 per set for other buildings, takes plans at planreview@mid.ms.gov, and says the office consults the local authority having jurisdiction on every review. The office asks for drawings by a Mississippi registered architect or engineer with stamp and seal and the code edition stated, the occupancy, construction type, occupant load and travel distances, height, stories, area, room uses, wall fire ratings and opening percentages, emergency vehicle access, fire lanes, water supply and hydrants, the underground main, the fire department connection, backflow preventer and post-indicator valve, fire alarm, standpipe, sprinkler and fire protection drawings, all means of egress with capacities, exit discharge to a public way, areas of refuge, emergency lighting, extinguishers, emergency generator and pump, fire and smoke dampers, and fire-rated doors; for modular homes it asks for a third-party stamp, wind speed and exposure, foundation plans, smoke and carbon monoxide detector locations, and GFCI and AFCI locations. The Department of Finance and Administration’s Bureau of Building is the state building authority under 12 Miss. Admin. Code Part 13. Its BOB Manual, dated March 2021 with its code list modified in 2024, tells the design professional to use the latest Bureau-adopted edition of the IBC, IEBC, International Plumbing, Mechanical, and Fuel Gas Codes, an “International Electrical Code”, ASHRAE 90.1, and the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code, without naming editions, says local building permits are not required and local authorities have no jurisdiction over state-owned projects unless authorized to act for the State, such as local fire marshals and health officials, citing City of Jackson v. Mississippi State Building Commission, 350 So. 2d 63 (1977), and says its staff will not review drawings or specifications for code compliance. The Bureau’s rule 2.9 requires each major facility project, a new building over 5,000 gross square feet or a renovation over half the replacement value where compliance is cost-effective and practical, to meet ASHRAE 90.1-2016 or a more stringent edition and to be commissioned, while the manual’s sustainability section still names ASHRAE 90.1-2010; use the rule and confirm with the Bureau.

The Mississippi Fire Prevention Code reaches past state buildings. Section 45-11-101 and Rule 7.03 apply it to all buildings owned by the State or its agencies; to public assembly buildings, buildings at least 75 feet tall permitted after July 1, 1978, private correctional facilities housing state inmates permitted after July 1, 2004, and any building whose owner asks for review, except in a county or city with a fire prevention code not less stringent; and to private fraternity and sorority houses on state property permitted after July 1, 2005, which need an NFPA 72 alarm and smoke detection system and, for houses built after April 20, 2005 (Rule 7.02.4 prints April 29), an NFPA 13 sprinkler system. Section 45-11-103 requires an automatic sprinkler system throughout every new building over 75 feet tall and any existing one where 25 percent or more of the floor space is reconstructed or added, except utility buildings where water would damage equipment and silos, grain elevators, and agricultural storage, and Rule 7.04 sends those sprinkler plans to the State Fire Marshal. Counties and cities with a code at least as stringent enforce it themselves except in state-owned buildings and must file an annual report under Rule 7.06. Schools and colleges need the ownership question answered: the Attorney General’s February 3, 2025 opinion says community and junior college buildings are not state-owned, so the local fire code generally applies unless the public assembly or 75-foot clauses bring in the state code where no local code is at least as stringent, with the college board deciding the facts and the State Fire Marshal deciding stringency. The building in that opinion had $3 million of its funding from the State, while the State Fire Marshal’s plan review page lists state-funded buildings among those that must submit plans, so ask both the State Fire Marshal and the local fire official before relying on either route. No statute read for this guide sets a separate state plan review for K-12 school buildings, so confirm the reviewer with the district and the local building and fire officials; the State Fire Marshal’s LP gas piping rule for school facilities, in force from August 9, 2026 according to the regulations index, requires newly installed LP gas piping to be pressure tested under NFPA 54 (2024) Section 8.1. For accessibility, the Bureau lists the state’s accessibility law for public buildings, Sections 43-6-101 through 43-6-125, and the federal rule at 28 CFR Part 35, and its rules make it responsible for the functions needed for state-owned buildings to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Section 43-6-113 still sets its own toilet room dimensions, such as an out-swinging stall door 32 inches wide and a water closet seat 20 inches from the floor, as reprinted in House Bill 1048 of 2023, which died; compare restroom details with both the statute and the federal standard the owner names and ask the reviewer which governs where they differ. Permit routing is on the Mississippi page, and the model codes have their own guides: IBC, IRC, IFC, IEBC, ASHRAE 90.1, and NFPA 70.

Gather the code analysis, the reviewing office, and each discipline’s Mississippi references

Collect the cover sheet and code analysis with every code and edition cited, the occupancy, construction type, height, stories, area, occupant load, and travel distances; the dimensioned site plan with fire lanes, emergency vehicle access, hydrants, the underground fire main, the fire department connection, and the backflow preventer and post-indicator valve; floor plans, sections, elevations, and door schedules with the room uses, wall ratings and opening percentages, and fire-rated doors; the life safety plan with exits, egress capacities, exit discharge, and areas of refuge; the structural drawings with the wind design speed, exposure, and windborne debris region, the flood zone and design flood elevation, and the statement of special inspections; the mechanical drawings with fire and smoke dampers; the plumbing and fuel gas drawings, including LP gas piping test notes for a school; the electrical drawings with emergency lighting and the emergency generator; the sprinkler, standpipe, and fire alarm drawings; the energy compliance reports; the accessibility plans and restroom details; and the specifications.

Add who owns the building and what funds it (the State or a state agency, a community college, a school district, another public body, or a private owner), the city or county and whether it opted out of Section 17-2-4 in 2014, whether the site is in Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, or Stone County, whether the structure claims a farm, industrial, fairground, camp, or manufactured housing exemption, the flood map panel and zone, and whether the building is used for public assembly or reaches 75 feet. Read the enacted bills on the Legislature’s bill status site, the fire code regulation and plan review requirements on the State Fire Marshal’s pages, the state building rules on the Bureau of Building page, the floodplain contacts on MEMA’s floodplain page, and the local adoption ordinance from the city or county clerk.

Trace the Mississippi codes and reviewers through the set

Fire code sheets continue in the IFC guide, the IBC Chapter 9 guide, the means of egress guide, and the IBC Chapter 7 guide, sprinkler and alarm documents in the NFPA 13 and NFPA 72 guides and the fire sprinkler checklist, life safety codes local ordinances adopt in the NFPA 101 guide, fuel gas and LP gas piping in the NFPA 54 and NFPA 58 guides, energy in the ASHRAE 90.1 and IECC guides, wind loads in the ASCE 7 guide, flood design in the ASCE 24 guide, storm shelters in the ICC 500 guide, special inspections in the special inspections guide, and accessible details in the ADA Standards and ICC A117.1 guides and the accessibility checklist. The local building codes guide explains how a local ordinance and its amendments go into a review. Neighboring state codes are in the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code guide, the Alabama guide, the Tennessee guide, and the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code guide.

Example: a state office building on state land in Gulfport

Hypothetical example. A state agency plans a two-story office building of about 24,000 square feet on land the State owns in Gulfport, paid for with state funds. The architect reused a template from a private project in a coastal city: the cover sheet names the city building department as the permitting authority, the code analysis cites the city’s adopted IBC and states no fire code edition, the energy notes cite ASHRAE 90.1-2010 from the Bureau of Building manual, and the schedule has no State Fire Marshal submittal.

The building is state-owned and state-funded, so the State Fire Marshal’s plan review page requires its plans to go to that office before construction, and Section 45-11-101(1)(a) applies the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code to all buildings owned by the State; the office’s notice says it adopted the 2024 IFC and IBC as of July 1, 2024, and its drawing list asks for the code edition to be stated. The Bureau of Building manual says local building permits are not required for state-owned projects and that Bureau staff do not review drawings for code compliance. The Bureau’s rule 2.9 requires a major facility project over 5,000 gross square feet to meet ASHRAE 90.1-2016 and to be commissioned, while the 2021 manual still names 90.1-2010. Confirm the reviewing office, the building and fire code editions, and the energy standard with the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Bureau of Building.

The architect removes the city permit block, states the 2024 IFC and IBC on the cover sheet, moves the energy compliance to ASHRAE 90.1-2016 with a commissioning authority in the specifications, and sends the plans with the request form, which carries no fee for a state agency, to the State Fire Marshal’s Office before construction. The finding is a jurisdiction and citation conflict; the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Bureau of Building decide compliance.

Review a Mississippi set with Groundbook

Upload the current drawings and specifications to Groundbook, and state the edition, amendments, and review scope in your instructions. Mississippi’s enacted bills are free on the Legislature’s bill status site, the State Fire Marshal posts the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code regulation and its plan review requirements, the Bureau of Building posts its manual and rules, the Attorney General posts official opinions, and many cities post their adoption ordinances. Upload the statutes, the fire code regulation, the Bureau’s rules, the local ordinance with its amendments, and the floodplain ordinance as code files, with the IBC, IRC, IFC, and IEBC editions, ASHRAE 90.1-2016, and the NFPA standards the project relies on from copies you are licensed to use where the license permits uploading them. See how Groundbook works with local and licensed codes.

Compare the cover sheet, code analysis, life safety plan, and every discipline’s general notes with the architectural, structural, fire protection, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, energy, and accessibility documents. Flag a reviewing office or permit path that does not fit the ownership, funding, city or county, and opt-out status in my instructions, code editions other than the ones the reviewer in my instructions adopts, drawings that do not state the code edition, a building over 75 feet without an automatic sprinkler system throughout, State Fire Marshal drawing items that are missing, such as the fire department connection, post-indicator valve, standpipes, areas of refuge, emergency lighting, and fire and smoke dampers, wind and flood design data that do not match the supplied local ordinance and flood map, energy documents not on ASHRAE 90.1-2016 where Section 57-39-21 applies, and restroom and accessible-route details that do not match the supplied statute and federal standard. Use the supplied statutes, regulations, ordinances, and model codes and cite both sources.

Groundbook compares the set with reference documents you upload, including licensed codes and standards you hold, and links each potential finding to the note or sheet and to the Mississippi statute, regulation, ordinance, opinion, checklist, or model code. It has no built-in library of licensed codes, runs no calculations, and does not design anything. It does not decide whether a city or county opted out, whether the State Fire Marshal, a local fire official, or a building department has jurisdiction, which edition governs where an agency notice, a regulation, and a manual differ, or whether an exemption applies; each finding is a question for the responsible design professional.

Document review does not certify compliance, issue a permit, plan approval, or certificate of occupancy, or replace the design professional, the city or county building official, the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Bureau of Building, the local fire official, or the community’s floodplain administrator.