LAW AND LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Jay Schenirer, Chair, District 5
Jeff Harris, Vice Chair, District 3
Katie Valenzuela, District 4
Eric Guerra, District 6
COMMITTEE STAFF
Wendy Klock-Johnson, Assistant City Clerk
Steve Itagaki, Supervising Deputy City Attorney
Consuelo Hernandez, Director of Governmental Affairs
Law and Legislation
Committee
City Hall-Council Chamber
915 I Street, 1st Floor
Published by the Office of the City Clerk
(916) 808-5163
CORRESPONDENCE
Description of Attached: Correspondence received after Agenda was published.
For the Meeting of: Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 1:00 p.m.
Agenda Item: Discussion Item 8
8. Climate Related Project Updates: New Building Electrification Ordinance, Existing Building Electrification Strategy, and Onsite Water Reuse Study File ID: 2022-01186
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: Review and comment on: 1) preparation for implementation of the City’s New Building Electrification Ordinance; 2) development of the Existing Building Electrification Strategy; and 3) Onsite Water Reuse and Dual Plumbing Study.
Contact: Matt Hertel, Principal Planner, 916-808-7158,
[email protected], Laura Tuller, Associate Planner, 916-808-3546, [email protected], Community Development Department; Yvette Rincon, Chief of Staff to the Director of Utilities, 916-808-1806, [email protected], Department of Utilities
From: Rosie Yacoub
To: Commission Submit; Public Comment
Subject: New Building Electrification Ordinance, Existing Building Electrification Strategy Date: Monday, June 20, 2022 11:43:19 PM
Greetings,
I am writing as a member of 350 Sacramento’s electrification team.
It is great to see the work going into building electrification, including the drafting of the equity criteria, which are important considerations going forward on the Existing Building Electrification (EBE) strategy.
We want to highlight that Advancing Energy Equity involves creating policy that accelerates the adoption of electric appliances and electric vehicles, particularly in disadvantaged communities, because bill burden for continued use of fossil fuels is increasing, and expected to continue doing so.
During the process of creating the New Building Electrification (NBE) Ordinance, the portion that included requirements for electric vehicle charging requirements was separated from the rest of the NBE ordinance and passed, but should still be considered together, as service, panels, and wiring for appliances and EV charging for new buildings will be designed together for new construction. The charging requirements adopted by the City of Sacramento are now weaker than what has been adopted by the State of California, and will need to be re-written. We encourage you to look at initiatives going on at the State level, and adopt strong requirements which would include having every parking spot in multi-family residential have access to charging, some at Level 1 (access to regular 110 V outlets) with a percentage, available to all residents, at Level 2.
This effort should be done in concert with the rest of the NBE requirements which start in 2023.
In order to ensure success of any EBE measure adopted, the permitting system for the City should be part of the solution, which can include policy changes, but also needed are: enhanced support for the Permit Department, education and outreach, and improvements in the City's permitting system. For example, the permitting process should be streamlined for the installation of heat pump and induction appliances by contractors who have experience with installations. This streamlining should reduce the amount of time required by both contractors and City staff to get these installations and their permits completed, and could act as an incentive for contractors to promote installations of induction stoves, heat pump HVAC, and Heat Pump water heaters. According to a study by the CEC (1), permit compliance for appliance replacement is around 10%, which alone will not support meaningful changes in replacement choices. A concept that requires the City to ensure that all improvements have been permitted when required, similar to the resale program in the City of Davis (3), should be considered.
Finally, there are a number of limitations at the service and panel level that may need to be addressed, and the City should work with SMUD to identify where those issues are. The XeroHome tool is very important to this effort, and the City should work with other Cities and the County to extend the use of Xerohome to help with overall strategies to deal with infrastructure issues where they are block or neighborhood level. To address issues at the individual property level, it is important that the permits for additions or alterations that do not include HVAC and/or water heating appliances have a requirements to review and upgrade electrical panel or branch circuit to support these electric appliances in the future. These requirements could be phased with requirements to educate choice first, but the bottom line is that a remodel is an event that allows for infrastructure upgrades in a way that is more efficient, less costly, and will allow for the more convenient replacement of appliances later.
Sincerely,
Rosie Yacoub, 350 Sacramento
1. See CEC Final 2021 Integrated Energy Policy Report Volume I Building Decarbonization, Page 64
3. See Resale Program | City of Davis, CA
Resale Program | City of Davis, CA
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