Michael Nearman

Deputy Executive Director's Message
First, I would like to say that everyone here at the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) sends our deepest condolences to everyone affected by the wildfires, and our heartfelt appreciation for our brave and tireless first responders and rescue workers. We also have a deep sense of gratitude toward all of those providing shelter and assistance to people and animals who have been displaced. At the Dec. 4 and 5, 2018 commission meeting, CBSC certified compliance and permanently approved emergency regulations arising from AB 932 (Chapter 786, Statutes of 2017), which address building standards for emergency housing. The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) proposed, and CBSC approved, the emergency building standards on April 17, 2018 and they became effective upon filing with Secretary of State on April 18, 2018. HCD issued Information Bulletin 2018-01 that explains the emergency building standards and how they may be adopted by local jurisdictions needing to establish emergency housing for the homeless or displaced persons, including evacuees from fire-affected areas. In addition to finalizing the emergency housing building standards, CBSC is in full swing with the 2018 Triennial Code Adoption Cycle, which will result in the publication of the 2019 California Building Standards Code (California Code of Regulations, Title 24) that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.  
 
During the summer months of July and August, CBSC conducted six Code Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings covering a large variety of building standard amendments submitted by the proposing state agencies for the 2018 Triennial Code Adoption Cycle. As always, the commission-selected CAC members did a fantastic job and completed their review within the timeframe allotted. These committee meetings resulted in recommendations to the proposing agencies and the commission, and preceded two separate 45-day public comment periods and five 15-day comment periods. Once the comment periods concluded, the state agencies prepared and submitted their final proposals to CBSC.

The commission meetings for review and adoption of proposed building standards are scheduled for Dec. 4 and 5, 2018 and Jan. 15 and 16, 2019. Meeting notices are issued 15 days prior to meeting dates to interested parties on our mailing list. The December meeting notice can be found here. If you’re not on our mailing list, take a moment to sign up now by visiting our Contact Us webpage. Also, be sure to read our feature article, “The Code Adoption Process – Commission Review and Approval,” which explains more about the commission review process. After reading the article, try our quiz to test your knowledge!

We are very pleased that Klara Flanagan joined the CBSC staff in May. Be sure to read more about Klara and all she does to help CBSC meet our mission in our Staff Spotlight article.

As a commission within the Department of General Services (DGS), we have been working hard to develop our strategic goals for the future, both internally and within the structure of DGS. CBSC has been successful in establishing goals that can be accomplished and that will benefit CBSC, the general public, our constituents and stakeholders. These goals are related to how we deliver important regulatory information to the public through our new web site (coming soon), as well as incorporating more use of electronic means to distribute information and provide education about building standards to the public. With the development of new educational videos (also coming soon), and updated publications and guidebooks, CBSC’s goal is to increase public participation in the rulemaking process and to maintain the transparency of the Title 24 rulemaking process.

Although we are currently limiting our speaking engagement schedule due to the demands of the rulemaking process, Executive Director Mia Marvelli recently attended the International Code Council’s Annual Conference in Richmond, Virginia, where she was a speaker on Global Connections Day (see more below). After the first of the year, and especially after the July publication of the 2019 edition of the California Building Standards Code, Title 24, CBSC leadership and subject matter experts on our technical staff will be available to present code updates and educational material to building officials, design professionals and other users of Title 24.

In conclusion, Mia and I are very proud of the CBSC staff and their efforts in making the 2018 Triennial Code Adoption Cycle a successful process resulting in a new set of Title 24 standards. It is the dedicated effort, expertise, and attention to detail that our staff brings to the table that makes the regulatory process run smoothly. As with every cycle, there are challenges, but those challenges are more easily managed with the excellent staff CBSC is lucky to have.

Staff Spotlight
Associate Governmental Program Analyst Klara Flanagan joined CBSC in May of this year. Previously she was with the Office of State Publishing, where she worked in human resources. She began her career with the state in 2012 at the Department of Health Care Services.

Here at CBSC, Klara’s main duty is as a Legislative Analyst, which is a liaison between DGS’ Office of Legislative Affairs and CBSC. However, when she came aboard, the legislative session was winding down and the DGS website redesign was winding up, so she has been one of our website lead content authors, which suits her degree in visual communications design. 
 
During the transition from our current website to the new platform (coming soon), Klara spent 100 percent of her time migrating documents and pages so that the conversion would be seamless for our constituents. She is also keeping up with all current postings of public comments and commission meeting materials for the 2018 Triennial Code Adoption Cycle – on BOTH websites! Once the new website is up and running, Klara will resume her legislative analysis duties.

Klara says she applied to CBSC because she “wanted to branch out in a new direction” and this position looked like the “perfect direction” for her. She’s happy she was selected because of the people she works with, the challenging and interesting work, and the beautiful and peaceful setting at the CBSC office.

Outside of work, Klara enjoys spending time with family and friends. She recently organized and oversaw her daughter’s wedding and is looking forward to spending time on her other interests, such as hiking, traveling or home improvement. Find out more about Klara on our About Us webpage.

The Code Adoption Process - Commission Review and Approval
The California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) is currently administering the 2018 Triennial Code Adoption Cycle, which will result in the publication of the 2019 California Building Standards Code, Title 24, that will go into effect on January 1, 2020. California law requires the commissioners to consider and approve or adopt proposed building standards before they can be included in Title 24.

So far this year, in our continuing series “The Code Adoption Process,” we have covered the steps leading up to the commission’s review of adopted and proposed building standards. Precycle activities, Code Advisory Committee (CAC) review and the public participation process were covered in our last three CALCode Quarterly issues. You can read these articles by visiting our CALCode Quarterly archives, available on our website at www.bsc.ca.gov.

As noted in our Summer 2018 article “The Code Adoption Process - Public Comment Periods,” after all of the public comments have been received and acted upon, the next step is for each proposing agency to prepare its final rulemaking documents for submission to CBSC. The final rulemakings are then collectively prepared by CBSC staff for review and consideration by the commissioners at a public meeting. 
 
Prior to the public meeting, CBSC staff reviews, prepares and assembles all of the proposing and adopting agencies’ rulemaking materials in compliance with Building Standards Law and ensuring that the intent of the Administrative Procedure Act is met. The rulemaking materials are distributed to the commissioners for their review and consideration for approval/adoption of building standards. Additionally, the rulemaking materials are made available to the public on our website. Building standards being considered for approval/adoption must meet certain criteria in order to be approved or adopted by the commission. These requirements are set forth in Health and Safety Code Section 18930(a) and are commonly referred to as the Nine-Point Criteria.

At the public commission meeting, each rulemaking is brought before the commissioners by staff of the respective state proposing agencies, and they will formally summarize their rulemaking. Oral presentations to the commissioners provide an overview of the work done to prepare the proposed building standards, including workshops, responses to legislative mandates and/or identification of a regulatory problem that needs to be addressed. State agency staff respond to comments and questions from the commissioners regarding the Code Advisory Committee recommendations and public comments. The state agency representative then formally requests that the commission approve/adopt the rulemaking.

At this time, the commission chair will call for any public member present (or on the teleconference) who wants to make oral comments and/or submit written comments regarding the proposed building standards. The commissioners consider all comments and their effect upon the proposed building standard(s).  After each proposing agency’s presentation and public comments, the commissioners will take one of four actions: adopt, disapprove, further study required, or adopt as amended.

For adopting state agencies such as the California Energy Commission and the State Lands Commission, the commissioners may only consider the record of the adopting agency’s rulemaking proceeding. Adopting state agencies must comply with the Nine-Point Criteria referred to above. The adopting agency’s presentation to the commissioners will include a summary of the steps they took to comply with rulemaking requirements, hearings conducted and the attention given to public comments. The commissioners may approve, return for amendment with recommended changes, or reject building standards.

Once rulemakings are approved/adopted by the commissioners, they are processed by CBSC staff and filed with the Secretary of State. At this point, staff begins the codification of the new triennial edition of Title 24 for use by design professionals, developers, contractors, local and state enforcement agencies, the general public and others. We’ll highlight the codification process in our next CALCode Quarterly.

For more detailed information about the rulemaking process, please refer to our publication, “A Public Guide to the Building Standards Adoption Process,” which is written for the public to gain a deeper understanding of the process and development of building standards within Title 24.
 

Featured Guidebook - The Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund (BSASRF)

To clarify the state law and regulations of the BSASRF, and for cities and counties to calculate and collect fees when building permits are issued in their jurisdiction, we have created a Guide to Filing Building Permit Surcharge Fees (SB 1473). This guide explains the requirements and processes in an easily understandable manner.

Some highlights of the guidebook are:

• Fee calculations, including charts showing how to assess and calculate the fee, and examples of calculations.  

Permit Valuation	Fee
$1 – 25,000	$1
$25,001 – 50,000	$2
$50,001 – 75,000	$3
$75,001 – 100,000	$4
Every $25,000 or fraction thereof above $100,000	Add $1

• Jurisdictions’ 10 percent retainer from the fee
• Frequently asked questions
• Samples of the forms needed for submittal 

Please check out our guidebook or visit our Building Permit Fee webpage (under Featured Links) for more information, including the law and an information bulletin related to the fund. If you have further questions, please call us at (916) 263-0916 or email cbsc@dgs.ca.gov.
 

On Friday, October 26, Associate Construction Analyst Enrique Rodriguez presented at the California Counties Architects and Engineers Association fall meeting. Enrique’s presentation focused on recent CALGreen (Title 24, Part 11) code updates from the 2016 intervening code cycle (effective July 1, 2018). Additionally, he discussed how to comply with Tier 1 and Tier 2 requirements using our new checklists, and upcoming changes to CALGreen codes for the 2019 edition.
 

Legislative Update - Chaptered Bills 2018
A bill is chaptered by the Secretary of State once it passes through both houses of the California State Legislature (Assembly and Senate) and has either been signed by the governor or has become law without the governor's signature. The following legislative bills tracked by CBSC have chaptered in 2018 and will become effective January 1, 2019 (unless otherwise specified in statute):

AB 565 (Bloom, Chapter 573, Statutes of 2018) Building standards: live/work units.
AB 1796 (Muratsuchi, Chapter 163, Statutes of 2018) Rental property: electric vehicle charging stations.
AB 2127 (Ting, Chapter 365, Statutes of 2018) Electric vehicle charging infrastructure: assessment.
AB 2371 (Carrillo, Chapter 867, Statutes of 2018) Water use efficiency: landscape irrigation.
AB 2911 (Friedman, Chapter 641, Statutes of 2018) Fire safety.
AB 2913 (Wood, Chapter 655, Statutes of 2018) Building standards: building permits: expiration.
AB 3002 (Grayson, Chapter 680, Statutes of 2018) Disability access requirements: information.
AB 3205 (O'Donnell, Chapter 401, Statutes of 2018) School facilities: modernization projects: door locks.
SB 721 (Hill, Chapter 445, Statutes of 2018) Building standards: decks and balconies: inspection.
SB 966 (Wiener, Chapter 890, Statutes of 2018) Onsite treated nonpotable water systems.
SB 969 (Dodd, Chapter 621, Statutes of 2018) Automatic garage door openers: backup batteries.
SB 1000 (Lara, Chapter 368, Statutes of 2018) Transportation electrification: electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
SB 1078 (Committee on Transportation and Housing, Chapter 957, Statutes of 2018) Housing Omnibus Bill.
SB 1205 (Hill, Chapter 854, Statutes of 2018) Fire protection services: inspections: compliance reporting.
SB 1226 (Bates, Chapter 1010, Statutes of 2018) Building standards: building permits.
SB 1397 (Hill, Chapter 1014, Statutes of 2018) Automated external defibrillators: requirement: modifications to existing buildings.
SB 1477 (Stern, Chapter 378, Statutes of 2018) Low-emissions buildings and sources of heat energy.
 

Answers to these questions can be located in our Public Guide to the Building Standards Adoption Process and Guide for Creating Proposed Building Standards.  This is just for fun...it's not clickable!  Answers are below so you can check how you did.