California Building Standards Commission: appeals: code interpretations.

Removed all provisions for code equivalence determinations (former Section 18946.2), which would have allowed the commission to issue binding determinations that alternative materials or methods meet code requirements with statewide effect.

Removed all provisions for precedent decisions (former Section 18946.1), which would have allowed the commission to designate appeal decisions as binding on all state and local agencies administering building standards.

Added authority for any person to request a code interpretation from the commission regarding the intent of any regulation or provision adopted by the commission, with a requirement that project-specific requests be reviewed with the appropriate local enforcing agency first.

Simplified legislative findings from an extensive set of declarations about the housing crisis, 540 jurisdictions, barriers to innovation, and precedent decisions down to four shorter findings covering the housing crisis, transparency requirements, preservation of local authority for more restrictive standards, and statewide concern.

Removed expanded appeal categories that would have allowed appeals of building standards themselves, local amendments to building standards, reasonable necessity determinations, and code equivalence determinations. Appeals are now limited to regulations, rules, omissions, interpretations, decisions, or practices of state or local agencies.

Changed the appeal process so that a person adversely affected by a local agency can now appeal independently, removing the prior requirement that both the local agency and the adversely affected person wish to appeal the issue jointly.

Removed provisions allowing the commission to stay a challenged local determination for a specific project, and removed the prohibition on local agencies denying, delaying, or conditioning permits solely because an applicant filed or participated in an appeal.

Removed hearing officer provisions that would have allowed appellants to request hearings before Office of Administrative Hearings officers with specific duties regarding housing delivery impacts and substantial evidence determinations.

Removed the January 1, 2028 deadline requiring the commission to adopt regulations or guidelines establishing procedures and criteria for appeals.

Removed amendment to Section 18949 regarding the commission's fee schedule.

Added a requirement that the person seeking to appeal must exhaust all local appeals procedures before appealing to the commission, with an exception for appeals requested jointly by the person and the local agency.

Added a requirement that the commission post decisions on appeals and code interpretations in a searchable format on its internet website.

All provisions prohibiting cities and counties from modifying building standards applicable to residential units (from Oct 1, 2025 to June 1, 2031) are removed. This included restrictions on local code amendments, more restrictive standards, the 18-month adoption cycle for residential units, model home design portability requirements, and limits on interim code changes.

The bill's scope is narrowed from a two-part act (one part with urgency limiting local residential code changes, one part creating the appeals framework) to a single act focused on the appeals process, code equivalence determinations, and code interpretations. The act description no longer references amendments to Sections 17958, 17958.5, 17958.7, 18916, 18929.1, 18930, 18938.5, 18941.5, or 18942.

The urgency declaration is removed. The bill no longer takes effect immediately upon passage and now requires only a simple majority vote instead of a two-thirds supermajority.

The commission is now authorized to promulgate code interpretations, and any person may request a code interpretation from the commission regarding the intent of any regulation or provision adopted by the commission.

The commission must post decisions on appeals and code interpretations on its internet website in a searchable format, increasing transparency of how building standards are interpreted statewide.

The commission must review appealed issues with specified stakeholders before making decisions.

The list of appealable issues now explicitly includes a request for approval to use an alternate material, broadening who can bring an appeal to the commission.

New sections (18945, 18946.1, 18946.2) establish a state-level appeals process allowing any person adversely affected by building standards, local amendments, reasonable necessity determinations, code interpretations, or code equivalence determinations to appeal to the California Building Standards Commission.

Legislative findings were substantially expanded to emphasize the 540-jurisdiction problem, barriers to statewide housing innovation and adaptive reuse, and the need for uniform interpretation. The bill now explicitly references Sections 17958.12, 18931, 18946, 18948.1, 18946.1, and 18946.2 in addition to the previously cited sections.

Appeals no longer require both the local agency and the affected person to jointly request the appeal. The prior requirement that both parties wish to appeal is removed, allowing a single party to bring an appeal.

The threshold for the commission to accept an appeal was lowered from requiring 'statewide significance' to only requiring 'potential statewide significance,' including impacts on housing delivery consistency, affordability, or financial risk.

For certain appeals, the appellant may request a hearing before an Office of Administrative Hearings officer who must determine whether the challenged action materially affects the feasibility, timing, or cost of residential projects. Additional hearing costs are borne by the appellant.

Local enforcement agencies must now post their written rules and regulations on their internet website (rather than merely making them available upon request), clearly identifying them as local interpretations or policies and linking them to related local amendments.

New code equivalence determination process (Section 18946.2) allows the commission to determine whether alternative materials, designs, methods of construction, or compliance paths provide performance not less than equivalent to the California Building Standards Code, upon request by a local enforcement agency or affected person.

New precedent decision authority (Section 18946.1) allows the commission to designate appeal decisions and code equivalence determinations as binding precedent on all state agencies that propose building standards and all local enforcement agencies that administer or enforce the affected standard.

Anti-retaliation provision prohibits local enforcement agencies from denying, delaying, or conditioning a permit application, inspection, or approval solely because the applicant or its design professional filed or participated in an appeal under the new provisions.

The commission gains authority to stay the effect of a challenged local determination for a specific project identified by the appellant if it makes a specified finding.

New Section 17958.12 clarifies that building officials may apply the building standards in effect at the time a residential unit was constructed, and authorizes retroactive building permits when no record of permit issuance exists for an existing residential unit.

The commission is required to adopt regulations or guidelines establishing procedures and criteria for appeals by January 1, 2028.

The effective date of all residential building standards restrictions is moved from June 1, 2025 to October 1, 2025, giving local governments an additional four months before the freeze on changes to residential building codes takes effect.

The date by which previously filed local building code amendments must have been in effect to qualify for the 'substantially equivalent' exemption is changed from January 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025, giving localities an additional nine months to have their amendments finalized and in force before the freeze applies.

A new exemption (paragraph 5) is added in Sections 17958.5(c), 17958.7(c), and related provisions allowing a city or county to make changes to residential building standards if those changes are necessary to implement a local code amendment that aligns with a general plan approved on or before June 10, 2025, and that permits mixed-fuel residential construction consistent with federal law while also incentivizing all-electric construction as part of an adopted greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy. This effectively protects localities that have already approved general plans allowing non-electric (e.g., natural gas) residential construction.

The old paragraph (5) regarding administrative practices is renumbered as paragraph (6) throughout the bill to accommodate the new mixed-fuel exemption inserted as paragraph (5). A duplicate word 'design' is also removed from Section 18938.5(d).

The effective date of the residential building standards freeze was changed from June 1, 2025 to October 1, 2025, giving local agencies an additional four months before the freeze takes effect.

A new exemption (paragraph 5) was added to Sections 17958(b), 17958.5(c), and 17958.7(c) allowing local agencies to adopt changes related to administrative practices during the freeze, limited to: reducing postentitlement permit processing times, altering postentitlement fee schedules, modernizing permitting platforms and software, reducing internal operational costs, or establishing/altering/removing building code enforcement programs.

A new subdivision (d) was added to Section 17958.7 requiring the California Building Standards Commission to review administrative-practice changes filed by local agencies within 45 days of receipt.

A new exception (paragraph 7) was added to Section 18929.1(c) exempting building standards that would not take effect until on or after January 1, 2032 from the freeze, allowing the commission to continue considering standards whose effective date falls after the freeze period ends.

Section 18938.5(d) was clarified to specify that the model home design lock-in applies only to future residential dwellings based on that approved model home design 'in the same jurisdiction,' limiting the geographic scope of the provision.

The fiscal note changed the state-mandated local program designation from 'no' to 'yes,' acknowledging that the bill imposes costs on local agencies that may be subject to state reimbursement requirements.

The bill now amends four additional sections of the Health and Safety Code: 18916 (model code definition), 18938.5 (building permit standards for model homes), 18941.5, and 18942.

The statewide concern finding now references Sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 (previously only 2, 3, and 4), extending the charter city applicability to the new model home design provision in Section 18941.5.

Section 18916 is amended to add the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code of the International Code Council to the list of codes that must be included in the definition of 'model code.'

A new Section 8 amends Section 18938.5 to require that the building standards in effect when a permit application is submitted for a residential dwelling based on an approved model home design must apply to all future dwellings built from that same model design, preventing localities from applying newer or more restrictive standards to subsequent units.

Two new exceptions are added to the residential building standards freeze in both Section 18929.1(c) and Section 18930(g): (5) standards necessary to incorporate the latest editions of model codes into the triennial California Building Standards Code, and (6) standards necessary to incorporate errata or emergency updates to those national model codes.

A new legislative finding states that no state reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason, addressing potential local government cost claims under the California Constitution.

The bill's classification changes from 'State-mandated local program: no' to 'State-mandated local program: yes,' reflecting the new requirement that local entities apply specific building standards to model home designs.

Added a new exception (paragraph 3) to the residential building standards moratorium in both Section 18929.1(c) and Section 18930(g): building standards proposed for adoption in relation to standards researched pursuant to Section 13108.5.2 are now exempt from the freeze.

Added a new exception (paragraph 4) to the residential building standards moratorium in both Section 18929.1(c) and Section 18930(g): building standards proposed for adoption pursuant to Sections 17921.9, 17921.11, or 18940.7 of the Health and Safety Code, or Section 13558 of the Water Code, are now exempt from the freeze.

Changed the introductory language in both sections from 'unless either of the following conditions is met' to 'unless either any of the following conditions is met' to grammatically accommodate the expanded list of exceptions.

Assembly Member Gabriel was added as a coauthor of the bill.

The prohibition on local modifications to state building standards (Section 17958(b)) now applies only to changes 'that are applicable to residential units' rather than all building standards. This narrows the bill's reach, allowing cities and counties to continue modifying non-residential building codes without meeting the new conditions.

Section 17958.5(b) changed 'a city and county' to 'a city and or county,' clarifying that either a city or a county may make modifications.

Section 18929.1(a) removed a stray word 'The' at the beginning of the sentence, correcting a drafting error from the introduced version.

Section 18930(a) removed a stray word 'Any' at the beginning of the sentence, correcting a drafting error from the introduced version.

Section 17958.7(a) contains a duplicated word 'geological' (reads 'local climatic, geological geological, or topographical conditions'), which appears to be an inadvertent typo introduced in the amendment.