Bill to Extend Code Cycle Signed by Governor
Aug. 18, 2010
Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed CBIA-sponsored legislation that will reduce the frequency that industry and local government officials have to deal with changes to the state building code.
The Governor on Tuesday signed AB 1693, authored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco. It is the second major victory this legislative session for CBIA, which earlier saw the homebuyer tax credit move through the legislature and signed by the governor this spring.
For almost 20 years, California’s Health and Safety Code has required the Building Standards Commission and numerous other state agencies to develop, adopt and publish updated building standards in an annual, 12-month administrative cycle. AB 1693 increases this time period by six months by establishing a new, 18-month code adoption cycle.
This annual administrative process was established in 1992. However, due to the increasingly complicated nature of writing and analyzing these highly technical codes, it is difficult for state agencies to complete all of the related administrative work, including the receipt of and response to public input within the confines of a 12-month administrative cycle.
More importantly, the current 12-month schedule leaves very little time for education and training on the code once adopted before the next set of changes are proposed.
Although AB 1693 stretches the current 12-month code-adoption cycle by six months, it does not change the current mandate that a new “triennial edition” of the state code be published every three years. Under this legislation, there would be just one interim update rather than two during any three-year period.
Bottom line: AB 1693 will provide more time for builders, architects and local code-enforcement officials to prepare for future changes to the code.
