1390                                Laws of Maryland                        [Ch. 662

system with its essentially local building regulatory departments
has done a creditable job protecting the health and safety of the
people in their respective communities.

It is further found and declared that this new demand calls for
more in depth performance evaluations in terms of the intent of
the building regulations and inspection services; these evaluations
usually involve going beyond the boundaries of local units of gov-
ernment and require the assistance of the State.

It is further found and declared that local officials in Maryland
possess great knowledge and insight in this field and are aware of
the needs for modification, and their cooperation in developing,
applying and refining a satisfactory program is essential; similarly,
there is a great opportunity to cooperate with sister states, with
organizations that have published widely-used model building codes,
standards of regulations, and with other similarly engaged agencies,
such as the U. S. National Bureau of Standards.

It is further found and declared that such cooperation shall be
an integral element in the application and enforcement of this state-
wide program.

266EE-2. Definitions.

(a)  "Approved testing facility" means an architect or professional
engineer, whose registration is accepted by Maryland, or a testing
organization, determined by the Department to be specifically quali-
fied by reason of facilities, personnel, experience and demonstrated
reliability, to investigate, test and evaluate industrialized buildings
and mobile homes, or the component parts thereof; to list such units
complying with standards promulgated by the Department; to pro-
vide adequate follow-up services at the point of manufacture to
insure that production units are in full compliance; and to provide
a label, seal or other evidence of compliance on each unit.

(b)  "Department" means Department of Economic and Commu-
nity Development.

(c)  "First user" means any person, firm or corporation initially
installing factory-built buildings within Maryland. A person who
subsequently buys a building which wholly or partially consists of
an industrialized building is not a first user within the meaning of
this definition.

(d)  "Industrialized Building" means a building assembly or sys-
tem of building sub-assemblies, including the necessary electrical,
plumbing, heating, ventilating and other service systems, manufac-
tures in its entirety, or in substantial part, off-site and transported
to the point of use for installation or erection, with or without other
specified components, as a finished building or as a part of a finished
building comprising two or more industrialized building units, and
not designed for ready removal to, or installation or erection on
another site.

(e)  "Install" means the assembly of an industrialized building
on site and the process of affixing an industrialized building to land,
a foundation, footings or an existing building.

(f)  "Local enforcement agency" means any agency of the govern-
ing body of any city or county which enforces laws or ordinances
governing the construction of buildings.