REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Oliver Chi, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Ursula Luna-Reynosa, Director of Community Development
Subject:
title
Adopt Ordinance No. 4190 adopting the 2019 Model California Construction Codes
Approved for introduction October 21, 2019 - Vote: 7-0
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Statement of Issue:
The California Health and Safety Code mandates that every three years the building and construction codes be updated for all cities and counties throughout the State in order to adopt the code with local amendments. If the City Council approves the attached ordinance, the most recent editions of the California construction codes with the applicable amendments will become effective January 1, 2020, as required by State law.
Financial Impact:
The adoption of the proposed Codes will not have any fiscal impact on the City’s budget.
Recommended Action:
recommendation
Adopt Ordinance No. 4190, “An Ordinance of the City of Huntington Beach Amending the Huntington Beach Municipal Code, Title 17 - Building and Construction Chapters 17.04, 17.07, 17.40, 17.44, and 17.48 to Adopt by Reference the Current California Code of Regulations Title 24 Parts 1-12 with Regard to the 2019 Edition of the California Building Code, 2019 Edition of the California Residential Code, 2019 Edition of the California Mechanical Code, 2019 Edition of the California Plumbing Code, and 2019 Edition of the California Electrical Code; to Adopt the 2019 Edition of the California Administration Code, 2019 Edition of the California Energy Code, 2019 Edition of the California Historical Building Code, 2019 Edition of the Reference Standards Code, and the 2019 Edition of the Green Building Standards Code; Chapter 17.46 Amending to Reference the 2018 Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hottub Code; Chapter 17.60 Amending to Reference the 2018 Uniform Solar, Energy and Hydronic and Geothermal Code;” (Attachment No. 1).
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Alternative Action(s):
1. Do not adopt the ordinance. This would mean that the State codes become law by default without local amendments.
2. Continue the item and direct staff accordingly.
Analysis:
Construction codes that regulate the health and safety of the structures in our city are published every three years, to keep up with current design technology and construction materials. The California Building Standards Commission is charged with approving and publishing the State Codes under Title 24. The 2019 editions of the California Building, Green Building Standards, Residential, Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical Codes were published on July 1, 2019. In accordance with Section 18941.5 of the California Health and Safety Code, the City is mandated to enforce the codes starting on January 1, 2020.
Summary of Title 24 Updates:
The 2019 California Building Code has undergone only minor changes from the 2016 edition. The majority of the changes were already made to the 2016 codes by interim changes that were carried forward in the 209 codes. A few of the most noteworthy changes are:
• Occupied roofs (permitted as per the story immediately below the roof)
• Mezzanine area limitation (allowing 50% of the open roof below under certain conditions)
• Protection of attics with fire sprinkler or other acceptable alternative methods in mid-level multi-family occupancies
• General office space floor areas to allow 50% larger before triggering additional exits
• Tsunami loads and designs for large public assemblies and essential facilities
• Exception to emergency escape openings in basement bedrooms when automatic sprinkler system is installed
• Interconnection of carbon monoxide alarms
• Solar panels for new single-family homes using the prescriptive energy method
Official adoption of the codes by reference allows the City of Huntington Beach to amend the codes for administrative purposes and for special conditions and hazards that do not exist in all jurisdictions, if necessary. The specific findings (Attachment No. 3) are also required to be adopted since the State requires cities to justify that the amendments are reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geological or topographic conditions. If the codes are not adopted, they will become law by default without amendments.
Summary of Local Amendments:
Huntington Beach has certain climatic and geological conditions that need to be mitigated to prevent certain hazards from occurring. Climatic conditions include Santa Ana winds and dry climatic conditions that could result in fires while the City’s location to Pacific Ocean could result in flooding. Local amendments include fire prevention systems and clarifying the minimum requirements for roof covering to mitigate fire hazards while requiring underground piping to be sleeved to protect infrastructure from flooding hazards. Geological conditions include seismic activity, methane district, corrosive soils, tsunami hazard zone, and floodplain hazards due to the failure of upstream dams. Examples of local amendments to mitigate such hazards include requiring soils and methane reports as part of Construction Documents, fire prevention systems, flood resistant construction and climatic and geographic design criteria. All other local amendments are administrative in nature.
The Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code and Uniform Solar, Hydronics and Geothermal Code are not mandated by the State. However, new editions are proposed to be adopted to reflect changes and to stay current with industry standards.
Adoption of the codes requires two City Council meetings as follows: First meeting is to introduce the Ordinance (October 21, 2019); and the second meeting is to adopt them with findings.
The proposed Huntington Beach Municipal Code amendments are contained in the attached legislative drafts.
Environmental Status:
The project involves adoption of an ordinance to incorporate the California Building Code update into the Huntington Beach Municipal Code. The project is exempt pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3), which exempts projects where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment. The project is also exempt pursuant to City Council Resolution No. 4501, which supplements the CEQA Guidelines Section 15320, Class 20, and states that projects involving "adoption of ordinances (except zoning) which establish or amend procedures for reviewing an activity or which require subsequent discretionary action which is subject to CEQA. " are exempt.
Strategic Plan Goal:
Enhance and maintain high quality City services
Attachment(s):
1. Ordinance No. 4190
2. Legislative Draft
3. Finding of Facts for code amendments