AB 306
Date of Hearing: March 19, 2025
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Buffy Wicks, Chair
AB 306 (Schultz and Rivas) – As Amended March 12, 2025
Policy Committee: Housing and Community Development Vote: 12 - 0 Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No SUMMARY:
This bill imposes a six-year moratorium, from June 1, 2025, to June 1, 2031, on the adoption or modification of state and local building standards affecting residential units, with limited exceptions.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Prohibits the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC), within the Department of General Services (DGS), and any other adopting agency, from June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, from considering, approving, or adopting any proposed building standards affecting residential units unless any of the following conditions are met:
a) The CBSC deems those changes necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety.
b) The building standards are related to home hardening and are proposed for adoption by the Office of the State Fire Marshal (SFM).
c) The building standards are proposed for adoption in relation to standards researched pursuant to AB 835 (Lee), Chapter 345, Statutes of 2023, relative to single-exit, singlestairway apartment houses. d) The building standards are proposed for adoption pursuant to AB 529 (Gabriel), Chapter 743, Statutes of 2023, regarding adaptive reuse residential projects. e) The building standards are proposed for adoption pursuant to SB 745 (Cortese), Chapter 884, Statutes of 2023, regarding water efficiency in new buildings. 2) Prohibits a city or county from making changes or modifications to building standards affecting residential units, including to green building standards, from June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, unless any of the following conditions are met:
a) The changes or modifications are substantially equivalent to changes or modifications that were previously filed by the city or county and were in effect as of January 1, 2025. b) The CBSC deems those changes or modifications necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety.
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c) The changes or modifications relate to home hardening. d) The building standards relate to home hardening and are proposed for adoption by a fire protection district pursuant to existing provisions governing the proposal of new standards by fire protection districts.
3) Requires CBSC to reject a modification or change to any building standard affecting a residential unit filed by a city or county, from June 1, 2025 until June 1, 2031, unless one of the conditions in item 2, above, is met.
FISCAL EFFECT:
CBSC and HCD will each incur costs, likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, to evaluate each statewide rulemaking proposal and each local modification proposal that affects residential units to determine if the proposal meets the bill’s exemption criteria. 1) CBSC estimates annual costs of approximately $262,000 for six years (Service Revolving Fund) for one permanent staff position to perform the additional analyses necessary to determine if a local or statewide proposal meets the exemption criteria of fire and life safety or home hardening. CBSC indicates it lacks existing staff with the needed background to evaluate these issues because these reviews typically fall under the authority of the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
Further, CBSC indicates staff will need to review local modification and change proposals in more detail to compare each ordinance to those already codified from the previous year, and to ensure they are substantially similar or equivalent, not more restrictive than previous years. CBSC notes the bill requires CBSC to make its own determination on whether the ordinance is substantially similar or equivalent, unlike CBSC’s existing process, which relies on findings made by the local agency. CBSC anticipates these additional responsibilities will at least double the staff time needed to review these proposals, but anticipates these costs will be minor and absorbable.
2) HCD estimates ongoing General Fund costs of $226,000 annually, beginning in fiscal year 2026-27, for one staff position to handle increased inquiries from CBSC to ascertain whether local code changes fall under an exemption and to advise CBSC on local amendments. HCD notes CBSC has no direct authority for residential building standards and will most likely require HCD's assistance reviewing local code amendments. Additionally, HCD anticipates the need to provide technical assistance to local government agencies, builders, design professionals, and the public and will likely need to create and publish clarifying information.
HCD further indicates it may require additional positions once the moratorium is lifted in 2031, when it expects to face a significant surge in workload to update and implement multiple building standard changes delayed during the six-year pause. 3) The California Energy Commission (CEC) anticipates no costs from this bill. 4) The cost, if any, to the SFM is unknown at this time.
COMMENTS:
AB 306
1) Purpose. The author seeks to help address California’s housing crisis by placing a moratorium on new building standards or local modifications affecting residential construction. According to the author:
California’s building codes are some of the most energy-efficient and protective of health and life safety in the nation, but the cumulative impact of ever more aggressive building code updates has measurably increased the cost of new housing construction. Industry stakeholders estimate the upfront cost increases of the code changes made over the last 15 years to be in the $50,000-$100,000 range per single-family unit, not including further cost pressures from local modifications.
This moratorium will bring more certainty to the home construction industry and help stem further construction cost increases, given the demand surge from the volume of homes and apartments that will need to be rebuilt in Los Angeles.
2) Background.
Building Standards. Existing law authorizes the CBSC to approve and adopt building standards through a triennial rulemaking process to revise and update the California Building Standards Code. There are approximately 20 state agencies that develop building standards and propose them for adoption to CBSC. HCD is responsible for proposing building standards to CBSC for residential buildings, hotels, and motels. Building standards take effect 180 days after they are published, unless a different date is specified.
Updates and changes to building standards are adopted through the triennial code adoption cycle which occurs every three years and through the intervening code adoption cycle, which provides an update to codes 18 months after the publication of the triennial codes. Regulatory activities for each cycle begin over two years before the effective date of the codes. The most recent update to the Building Standards Code, the 2025 Triennial Edition, takes effect on January 1, 2026. Existing law also requires CBSC to publish the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen Code) once every three years. The most recent edition, the 2025 CALGreen Code, also takes effect on January 1, 2026. Because CBSC has already adopted these codes, they will go into effect as planned, on January 1, 2026, even if this bill becomes law.
Local agencies are authorized to adopt stricter building codes than the state based on climactic, geologic, or topographic conditions. Existing law requires CBSC to review each such ordinance, to ensure the local agency has clearly marked what is being amended and how, the local agency cites its statutory authority, and the required findings and certifications are included. During the 2022 code adoption cycle, CBSC received 515 ordinances from local agencies throughout the state and spent 1,875 staff hours reviewing them. This bill requires CBSC to reject local modifications and changes to the code unless exemption criteria are met.
Los Angeles Wildfires and the Governor’s Executive Order (EO). On January 7, 2025, two wildfires, the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, ignited in Los Angeles County. Together, these fires destroyed over 16,000 structures, including over 13,000 housing units. In response to these wildfires, Governor Newsom issued EO N-4-25 on January 12, 2025, instructing HCD, AB 306
within 60 days and in consultation with DGS, the SMF and the CEC to review and provide recommendations to the Governor regarding any provision of the Building Standards Code that should be suspended in order to facilitate rapid, safe, and cost-effective rebuilding and recovery. It is unknown at this point whether the Governor will suspend any specific provisions of building codes for wildfire-related rebuilding projects. 3) Support and Opposition. This bill is supported by a variety builders and housing advocates who assert state and local building code requirements drive up the cost of building affordable housing and believe pausing the building code update cycle will be beneficial to the state’s affordable housing crisis.
This bill is opposed by numerous environmental and energy groups who are concerned the bill omits consideration of green building standards as a basis for acceptable code updates, including protecting new reach codes, EV charging requirements, energy efficiency upgrades, among others.
4) Related Legislation. AB 6 (Ward), of this legislative session, requires HCD to convene a working group regarding allowing residential developments between three and 10 units to be designed and built under the requirements of the California Residential Code rather than the California Building Code, and requires HCD to research construction cost pressures for residential construction due to building standards and provide a report to the Legislature. AB 6 is pending in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.
Analysis Prepared by: Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081