Why Can't We Make Approved Building Plans Reusable?

Question

Why do people have to go through an entire architectural drawing and engineering process for every single building we create? Maybe we would require a soils test to make sure the ground has the same bearing capacity. If a building plan is approved by government officials, that plan should be available on the approved list for anybody to use at any time going forward. It is stupid that people have to spend $20,000 or $30,000 every time they want to build a box that has been approved and built literally hundreds of thousands of times before.The architectural and engineering special interests have really captured their regulators on this one.

appreciatorBus · Accepted Answer

Because city planners and Nimby homeowners do not want it to be easy to build new building buildings. Every extra dollar you can force a proponent to spend, increases the odds that the project will no longer be economic to build, and simply not be built. For those most active in city politics, this is a win.
It goes way beyond design.
Early housing reformers in the 1920s, explicitly called for punitive fire regulations for multifamily buildings to make them on economical while admitting that they would not ask for any fire regulations for single-family buildings whatsoever.
[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0194436920897553...

baubino · Answer

It&rsquo;s a liability issue. The approval is granted to the architect or engineer who stamps/signs the building plans. The plan itself demonstrates that the structure meets all legal and safety requirements. If something goes wrong, whoever signed that plan is personally liable.

jamesgill · Answer

TL;DR: liability.