AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 12, 2025
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 5, 2025
california legislature—2025–26 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 306
Introduced by Assembly Members Schultz and Rivas
(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Haney and Wicks) (Coauthor: Assembly Member Gabriel)
January 23, 2025
An act to amend Sections 17958, 17958.5, 17958.7, 18929.1, and 18930 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to building standards, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. legislative counsel’s digest
AB 306, as amended, Schultz. Building regulations: state building standards.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development (department) in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. Existing law, the California Building Standards Law, establishes the California Building Standards Commission (commission) within the Department of General Services. Existing law requires the commission to approve and adopt building standards and to codify those standards in the California Building Standards Code (code). Existing law, the State Housing Law, establishes statewide construction and occupancy standards for buildings used for human habitation.
Existing law requires, among other things, the building standards adopted and submitted by the department for approval by the commission, as specified, to be adopted by reference, with certain exceptions. Existing law authorizes any city or county to make changes
Revised 3-19-25—See last page. 97
in those building standards that are published in the code, including to green building standards. Existing law requires the governing body of a city or county, before making modifications or changes to those green building standards, to make an express finding that those modifications or changes are reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geological, or topographical conditions.
This bill would, from June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, prohibit a city or county from making changes that are applicable to residential units to the above-described building standards unless a certain condition is met, including that the commission deems those changes or modifications necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety. By requiring a city or county to take certain actions relating to building standards, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would, from June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, require the commission to reject a modification or change to any building standard, as described above, affecting a residential unit and filed by the governing body of a city or county unless a certain condition is met, including that the commission deems those changes or modifications necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing law requires the commission to receive proposed building standards from state agencies for consideration in an 18-month code adoption cycle and to develop regulations, as specified, setting forth the procedures for the 18-month adoption cycle.
This bill, from June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, would provide that the above-described requirement does not apply to any building standards affecting residential units and would prohibit the commission from considering, approving, or adopting any proposed building standards affecting residential units, unless a certain condition is met, including that the commission deems those changes necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety.
The California Building Standards Law provides for the adoption of building standards by state agencies by requiring all state agencies that adopt or propose adoption of any building standard to submit the building standard to the commission for approval and adoption.
This bill would prohibit the commission or any other adopting agency from considering, approving, or adopting any proposed building standards affecting residential units, unless a certain condition is met, 97 AB 306 — 2 —
including that the commission deems those changes necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety.
The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2⁄3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the line 2 following:
line 3 (a) The state faces a housing crisis of availability and line 4 affordability, in large part due to a severe shortage of housing. line 5 (b) Solving the housing crisis therefore requires a multifaceted, line 6 statewide approach, which will include, but is not limited to, any line 7 or some of the following:
line 8 (1) Encouraging an increase in the overall supply of housing. line 9 (2) Encouraging the development of housing that is affordable line 10 to households at all income levels.
line 11 (3) Removing barriers to housing production.
line 12 (4) Expanding the availability of rental housing. line 13 (c) Addressing the housing crisis and the severe shortage of line 14 housing is a matter of statewide concern and is not a municipal line 15 affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the line 16 California Constitution. Therefore, Sections 2, 3, and 4 of this act line 17 amending Sections 17958, 17958.5, and 17958.7 of the Health and line 18 Safety Code apply to all cities, including charter cities. line 19 SEC. 2. Section 17958 of the Health and Safety Code is line 20 amended to read:
line 21 17958. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), and in line 22 Sections 17958.8 and 17958.9, any city or county may make line 23 changes in the provisions adopted pursuant to Section 17922 and line 24 published in the California Building Standards Code or the other line 25 regulations thereafter adopted pursuant to Section 17922 to amend, line 26 add, or repeal ordinances or regulations which impose the same line 27 requirements as are contained in the provisions adopted pursuant line 28 to Section 17922 and published in the California Building 97 — 3 — AB 306
line 1 Standards Code or the other regulations adopted pursuant to Section line 2 17922 or make changes or modifications in those requirements line 3 upon express findings pursuant to Sections 17958.5 and 17958.7. line 4 If any city or county does not amend, add, or repeal ordinances or line 5 regulations to impose those requirements or make changes or line 6 modifications in those requirements upon express findings, the line 7 provisions published in the California Building Standards Code line 8 or the other regulations promulgated pursuant to Section 17922 line 9 shall be applicable to it and shall become effective 180 days after line 10 publication by the California Building Standards Commission. line 11 Amendments, additions, and deletions to the California Building line 12 Standards Code adopted by a city or county pursuant to Section line 13 17958.7, together with all applicable portions of the California line 14 Building Standards Code, shall become effective 180 days after line 15 publication of the California Building Standards Code by the line 16 California Building Standards Commission.
line 17 (b) Commencing June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, a line 18 city or county shall not make changes that are applicable to line 19 residential units in the provisions adopted pursuant to Section line 20 17922 and published in the California Building Standards Code line 21 or the other regulations thereafter adopted pursuant to Section line 22 17922 to amend, add, or repeal ordinances or regulations which line 23 impose the same requirements as are contained in the provisions line 24 adopted pursuant to Section 17922 and published in the California line 25 Building Standards Code or the other regulations adopted pursuant line 26 to Section 17922 or make changes or modifications in those line 27 requirements upon express findings pursuant to Sections 17958.5 line 28 and 17958.7, unless one of the following conditions is met:
line 29 (1) The changes or modifications are substantially equivalent line 30 to changes or modifications that were previously filed by the line 31 governing body of the city or county and were in effect as of line 32 January 1, 2025.
line 33 (2) The commission deems those changes or modifications line 34 necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety. line 35 (3) The changes or modifications relate to home hardening. line 36 (4) The building standards relate to home hardening and are line 37 proposed for adoption by a fire protection district pursuant to line 38 Section 13869.7.
line 39 SEC. 3. Section 17958.5 of the Health and Safety Code is line 40 amended to read:
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line 1 17958.5. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (c) and in line 2 Section 17922.6, in adopting the ordinances or regulations pursuant line 3 to Section 17958, a city or county may make those changes or line 4 modifications in the requirements contained in the provisions line 5 published in the California Building Standards Code and the other line 6 regulations adopted pursuant to Section 17922, including, but not line 7 limited to, green building standards, as it determines, pursuant to line 8 the provisions of Section 17958.7, are reasonably necessary line 9 because of local climatic, geological, or topographical conditions. line 10 (b) For purposes of this section, a city or county may make line 11 reasonably necessary modifications to the requirements, adopted line 12 pursuant to Section 17922, including, but not limited to, green line 13 building standards, contained in the provisions of the code and line 14 regulations on the basis of local conditions.
line 15 (c) Commencing June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, a line 16 city or county shall not make a change or modification as described line 17 in subdivision (a) or (b), including to green building standards, line 18 that is applicable to residential units, unless one of the following line 19 conditions is met:
line 20 (1) The changes or modifications are substantially equivalent line 21 to changes or modifications that were previously filed by the line 22 governing body of the city or county and were in effect as of line 23 January 1, 2025.
line 24 (2) The commission deems those changes or modifications line 25 necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety. line 26 (3) The changes or modifications relate to home hardening. line 27 (4) The building standards relate to home hardening and are line 28 proposed for adoption by a local fire prevention district pursuant line 29 to Section 13869.7.
line 30 SEC. 4. Section 17958.7 of the Health and Safety Code is line 31 amended to read:
line 32 17958.7. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (c) and in line 33 Section 17922.6, the governing body of a city or county, before line 34 making any modifications or changes pursuant to Section 17958.5, line 35 shall make an express finding that such modifications or changes line 36 are reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geological, or line 37 topographical conditions. Such a finding shall be available as a line 38 public record. A copy of those findings, together with the line 39 modification or change expressly marked and identified to which line 40 each finding refers, shall be filed with the California Building 97 — 5 — AB 306
line 1 Standards Commission. No modification or change shall become line 2 effective or operative for any purpose until the finding and the line 3 modification or change have been filed with the California Building line 4 Standards Commission.
line 5 (b) The California Building Standards Commission may reject line 6 a modification or change filed by the governing body of a city or line 7 county if no finding was submitted.
line 8 (c) Commencing June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, line 9 the commission shall reject a modification or change to any line 10 building standard affecting a residential unit and filed by the line 11 governing body of a city or county, unless one of the following line 12 conditions is met:
line 13 (1) The changes or modifications are substantially equivalent line 14 to changes or modifications that were previously filed by the line 15 governing body of the city or county and were in effect as of line 16 January 1, 2025.
line 17 (2) The commission deems those changes or modifications line 18 necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety. line 19 (3) The changes or modifications relate to home hardening. line 20 (4) The building standards relate to home hardening and are line 21 proposed for adoption by a local fire prevention district pursuant line 22 to Section 13869.7.
line 23 SEC. 5. Section 18929.1 of the Health and Safety Code is line 24 amended to read:
line 25 18929.1. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (c), the line 26 commission shall receive proposed building standards from state line 27 agencies for consideration in an 18-month code adoption cycle. line 28 The commission shall develop regulations setting forth the line 29 procedures for the 18-month adoption cycle. The regulations shall line 30 ensure all of the following:
line 31 (1) Adequate public participation in the development of building line 32 standards prior to submittal to the commission for adoption and line 33 approval.
line 34 (2) Adequate notice, in written form, to the public of the line 35 compiled building standards and their justification. line 36 (3) Adequate technical review of proposed building standards line 37 and accompanying justification by advisory bodies appointed by line 38 the commission.
line 39 (4) Adequate time for review of recommendations by advisory line 40 bodies prior to action by the commission.
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line 1 (5) The procedures shall meet the intent of the Administrative line 2 Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of line 3 Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) and line 4 Section 18930.
line 5 (b) Where this section is in conflict with other provisions of this line 6 part, the intent of this section shall prevail.
line 7 (c) Commencing June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, line 8 subdivision (a) shall not apply to any building standards affecting line 9 residential units and proposed building standards affecting line 10 residential units shall not be considered, approved, or adopted by line 11 the commission, unless either any of the following conditions is line 12 met:
line 13 (1) The commission deems those changes necessary as line 14 emergency standards to protect health and safety. line 15 (2) The building standards relate to home hardening and are line 16 proposed for adoption by the Office of the State Fire Marshal. line 17 (3) The building standards are proposed for adoption in relation line 18 to standards researched pursuant to Section 13108.5.2. line 19 (4) The building standards are proposed for adoption pursuant line 20 to Sections 17921.9, 17921.11, or 18940.7 of this code, or Section line 21 13558 of the Water Code.
line 22 SEC. 6. Section 18930 of the Health and Safety Code is line 23 amended to read:
line 24 18930. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (g), any building line 25 standard adopted or proposed by state agencies shall be submitted line 26 to, and approved or adopted by, the California Building Standards line 27 Commission prior to codification. Prior to submission to the line 28 commission, building standards shall be adopted in compliance line 29 with the procedures specified in Article 5 (commencing with line 30 Section 11346) of Chapter 3.5 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of line 31 the Government Code. Building standards adopted by state line 32 agencies and submitted to the commission for approval shall be line 33 accompanied by an analysis written by the adopting agency or line 34 state agency that proposes the building standards which shall, to line 35 the satisfaction of the commission, justify the approval thereof in line 36 terms of the following criteria:
line 37 (1) The proposed building standards do not conflict with, line 38 overlap, or duplicate other building standards. 97 — 7 — AB 306
line 1 (2) The proposed building standard is within the parameters line 2 established by enabling legislation and is not expressly within the line 3 exclusive jurisdiction of another agency.
line 4 (3) The public interest requires the adoption of the building line 5 standards. The public interest includes, but is not limited to, health line 6 and safety, resource efficiency, fire safety, seismic safety, building line 7 and building system performance, and consistency with line 8 environmental, public health, and accessibility statutes and line 9 regulations.
line 10 (4) The proposed building standard is not unreasonable, line 11 arbitrary, unfair, or capricious, in whole or in part. line 12 (5) The cost to the public is reasonable, based on the overall line 13 benefit to be derived from the building standards. line 14 (6) The proposed building standard is not unnecessarily line 15 ambiguous or vague, in whole or in part.
line 16 (7) The applicable national specifications, published standards, line 17 and model codes have been incorporated therein as provided in line 18 this part, where appropriate.
line 19 (A) If a national specification, published standard, or model line 20 code does not adequately address the goals of the state agency, a line 21 statement defining the inadequacy shall accompany the proposed line 22 building standard when submitted to the commission. line 23 (B) If there is no national specification, published standard, or line 24 model code that is relevant to the proposed building standard, the line 25 state agency shall prepare a statement informing the commission line 26 and submit that statement with the proposed building standard. line 27 (8) The format of the proposed building standards is consistent line 28 with that adopted by the commission.
line 29 (9) The proposed building standard, if it promotes fire and panic line 30 safety, as determined by the State Fire Marshal, has the written line 31 approval of the State Fire Marshal.
line 32 (b) In reviewing building standards submitted for its approval, line 33 the commission shall consider only the record of the proceedings line 34 of the adopting agency, except as provided in subdivision (b) of line 35 Section 11359 of the Government Code.
line 36 (c) Where the commission is the adopting agency, it shall line 37 consider the record submitted to, and considered by, the state line 38 agency that proposes the building standards and the record of line 39 public comment that results from the commission’s adoption of line 40 proposed regulations.
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line 1 (d) (1) The commission shall give great weight to the line 2 determinations and analysis of the adopting agency or state agency line 3 that proposes the building standards on each of the criteria for line 4 approval set forth in subdivision (a). Any factual determinations line 5 of the adopting agency or state agency that proposes the building line 6 standards shall be considered conclusive by the commission unless line 7 the commission specifically finds, and sets forth its reasoning in line 8 writing, that the factual determination is arbitrary and capricious line 9 or substantially unsupported by the evidence considered by the line 10 adopting agency or state agency that proposes the building line 11 standards.
line 12 (2) Whenever the commission makes a finding, as described in line 13 this subdivision, it shall return the standard to the adopting agency line 14 or state agency that proposes the building standards for a line 15 reexamination of its original determination of the disputed fact. line 16 (e) Whenever a building standard is principally intended to line 17 protect the public health and safety, its adoption shall not be a line 18 “factual determination” for purposes of subdivision (d). Whenever line 19 a building standard is principally intended to conserve energy or line 20 other natural resources, the commission shall consider or review line 21 the cost to the public or benefit to be derived as a “factual line 22 determination” pursuant to subdivision (d). Whenever a building line 23 standard promotes fire and panic safety, each agency shall, unless line 24 adopted by the State Fire Marshal, submit the building standard line 25 to the State Fire Marshal for prior approval.
line 26 (f) Whenever the commission finds, pursuant to paragraph (2) line 27 of subdivision (a), that a building standard is adopted by an line 28 adopting agency pursuant to statutes requiring adoption of the line 29 building standard, the commission shall not consider or review line 30 whether the adoption is in the public interest pursuant to paragraph line 31 (3) of subdivision (a).
line 32 (g) Commencing June 1, 2025, until June 1, 2031, inclusive, line 33 proposed building standards affecting residential units shall not line 34 be considered, approved, or adopted by the commission or any line 35 other adopting agency, unless either any of the following conditions line 36 is met:
line 37 (1) The commission deems those changes necessary as line 38 emergency standards to protect health and safety. line 39 (2) The building standards relate to home hardening and are line 40 proposed for adoption by the Office of the State Fire Marshal. 97 — 9 — AB 306
line 1 (3) The building standards are proposed for adoption in relation line 2 to standards researched pursuant to Section 13108.5.2. line 3 (4) The building standards are proposed for adoption pursuant line 4 to Sections 17921.9, 17921.11, or 18940.7 of this code, or Section line 5 13558 of the Water Code.
line 6 SEC. 7. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the line 7 immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within line 8 the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall line 9 go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
line 10 In order to avert economic and social harm as a result of natural line 11 disasters and the severe lack of affordable housing in the state, it line 12 is necessary for this act to take effect immediately. line 13
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REVISIONS: line 15
Heading—Line 3. line 16
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