State Housing Law: City of Los Angeles: conversion of nonresidential buildings.

The California Building Standards Law establishes the California Building Standards 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, which is required to be published once every 3 years. The State Housing Law establishes statewide construction and occupancy standards for buildings used for human habitation. That law requires the building department of every city or county to enforce within its jurisdiction the provisions of the California Building Standards Code, the provisions of the State Housing Law, and specified other rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to that law. That law authorizes a city or county to adopt alternative building regulations for the conversion of commercial or industrial buildings to joint living and work quarters, as specified. This bill would additionally authorize the City of Los Angeles (city) to adopt alternative building regulations for the conversion of nonresidential buildings to residential uses, as specified. The bill would prohibit these alternative building regulations from applying to nonresidential buildings with industrial uses. Before adopting alternative building regulations, this bill would require the city to have a housing element compliant with law, adopt an ordinance facilitating or expediting the review of adaptive reuse projects, and make specified express findings. This bill would require the city to file the alternative building regulations and a copy of the findings expressly marked and identified with the regulation that the finding refers to with the commission. The bill would authorize the commission to reject the alternative building regulations filed by the city. The bill would prohibit the alternative building regulations from being effective or operative for any purpose until the findings and the alternative building regulations have been filed with the commission or if the commission rejects the alternative building regulations. This bill would require the city to notice, hold at least two public meetings, and provide for public comment, as specified, before adopting alternative building regulations. The bill, if the city adopts the approved alternative building regulations, would require those regulations to be adopted at a public meeting of the legislative body of the city. The bill would require the city to submit the adopted alternative building regulations to the commission. This bill would authorize the commission and other specified state agencies to request additional information from the city regarding regulations adopted pursuant to this bill. This bill would repeal these provisions and any alternative building standards adopted pursuant to these provisions upon the effective date of specified state adaptive reuse building standards, or January 1, 2029, whichever is earlier. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Los Angeles.