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In Massachusetts, the laws DO apply uniformly to hotels, fraternity houses, and dorms- all of which are defined under our law as 'lodging houses'. We all have the same fire codes and other regulations. The towns have the authority to determine which parts of town are what kind of zone, but the state defines the zones, and the state defines the building codes. The town can define a bunch of other regulations- how many people per bedroom, per unit, set back from the road, etc. but most of the authority is state-wide.
Our problem is the enforcement- we have overzealous local inspectors, who look for the tiniest code infractions. However, I can see their point of view too. The people of Amherst HATE fraternities- they hate college students in general, because we disrupt the normal flow of life, but it's the fraternities that send streams of drunken party-goers out into the streets three nights a week. Every child in Amherst grows up hearing fraternity as a four letter word. It's no wonder they elect inspectors who crawl up our a**es.
What state are you in? Maybe it's time you modernized your building codes down there.
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