I'm slowly renovating the oldest daughter's house in OH (cheaper than college apt rent). Had to rip out the knob & tube wiring and upgrade. Had a discussion with the city inspector, who was helpful and friendly. I expressed my doubts about the validity of what appeared to be paranoia-driven new code (new requirements for arc-fault protection). He explained it's not anyone asking "what if," but data from fire inspectors following an incident. If they're basing it on historical data, it's harder to criticize the reasoning, IMHO.
But I totally understand the frustration, because I'm experiencing it, too.
Some city, county and state building codes allow them to force you to update
the entire structire to meet their current codes based entirely on your estimated cost of construction.
I don't disagree with most life safety codes, although sometimes commercial codes are more restrictive. I suppose the general public is less attentive to their surroundings than residential folks. Most states have adopted one revision or other of the ICC IRC. The Life Safety Code is a secondary book of codes and statutes that can and will supercede the ICC codes, generally but not always enforced by the Fire Marshal.
Generally speaking, in MANY local jurisdictions the Building Department performs all inspections, the Fire Marshal generally becomes involved during construction along with the building department during multi-family, mixed use, and pure commercial construction. For instance, in residential construction, a guardrail minimum height is 36". In MF, MU, or Commercial, the handrail must be 42". Please explain why.
The codes are all over the board on stairs. If you build a home, there is no requirement related to the number of risers you are allowed to have in a run of EXTERIOR stairs, however the Life Safety Code says if there is one step, you must have 3, the exception being a one step allowance at street level counting the curb as a step. If there is a run of three risers, you must have a handraill there are several sections in different codebooks that pertain to handrail requitements.
Lastly, while most juridictions and states have done a fairly good job of adopting these codes, they are still enforced by individuals who allow their biases and preferences to cloud their decisions.
Life Safety also deals with hadicap issues, of which there are many. Then you have to include NFPA 70 which includes the National Electric Code. All of these manuals average about 4" in thickness. Fortunately the laws are written as such (at least my experience in the Southeast) that an enforcement official can't make you provide MORE than the code requires.
Good luck with your renovation.