IECC 2009-2012 economizer requirement

I know this question will apply to a very few engineers and the answer will vary around the country depending on climate zone and codes enforced, but has anyone found a way to get around the economizer requirements in the 2009 or 2012 IECC? 2009 requires them (in my area of the country) on anything 5 tons and above. 2012 requires them on anything 3 tons and above. There are some exceptions written in the code, but none apply to me. This is easy enough with a packaged unit, but it is a nightmare for split systems. I would love to find a way to not call for them, or to find out i'm misreading the code, but haven't so far.