Building Standards Commission to Ease Adaptive Reuse of Existing Buildings

California’s Building Standards Commission has voted to ease barriers to the safe conversion of underused existing commercial buildings. The change will amend the CA Existing Building Code and will facilitate three options or “compliance paths” for architects to choose from in adaptive reuse: Prescriptive; Work Area; and Performance. While all three paths satisfy safety requirements, each allows designers different methodologies depending on the particular building challenge. The existing California code only allows the Prescriptive path. “The most sustainable buildings are the ones that are already built. Prioritizing the reuse of existing buildings not only accelerates the reduction of embodied carbon emissions from new construction, it ‘incentivizes’ … creating more sustainable and resilient communities” said William Leddy, Vice President of Climate Action of AIA California. – Archinect.com

East Bay MUD Opposes New Housing

The Contra Costa County court put a stop to a new housing development just outside of Danville, when Judge Danielle Douglas ruled that the project’s environmental review lacked “reasoned analysis regarding water supply issues.” Interestingly East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD) joined the Sierra Club in opposing the project. EBMUD has previously stated “if there’s a request for us to provide water outside our service area, we typically oppose, … we recognize water is not limitless.” EBMUD’s active opposition to new development for ‘lack of water’ is curious when, by their own admission, the population in their service area has increased 34% since 1970 to around 1.4 million people, but urban water use has dropped 42%. Per the Mercury News.

Social Noise as an Environmental Impact?

The City of Berkeley continues to be in the headlines for their aggressive CEQA decisions. The CA Supreme Court has decided to review Make UC a Good Neighbor v. Regents of Univ. California (2023) 88 Cal.App.5th 656, in which the Appeals Court ruled that an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a UC Berkeley housing project failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, the decision could expand the scope of CEQA’s required noise analysis, creating another obstacle for developments to overcome – and another way for opponents of a project to weaponize CEQA.   

Updates and Agency Fees Comparison Coming Soon!

Check out our Insights page where we at Heilbronner Agency Management plan to share our insights, items of interest and news from the real estate development industry that we find particularly interesting. Whatever it is, we will aim to make our insights useful, informative, and relevant to our clients, consultants and other professionals navigating the complex world of land use, entitlements, permitting, environmental impact mitigation, development, and construction.  

Look for our Agency Fees survey, which will use ‘prototype’ projects to compare permit and impact fees across several CA cities, Coming Soon! 

Goleta, CA - Hotel

A window replacement hotel project in Goleta, CA requires more process than expected. Replacement windows and doors on a 2-story, walk-up, exterior corridor hotel requires energy compliance certification of new windows despite their superiority over existing single glazing. Simple glass replacement into existing framing does not fly under the scrutiny of the presiding building department. Making the project more extensive is its accessibility compliance, particularly the paths of travel along extensive sidewalks to and from the street and accessible parking spaces. Accessibility compliance is paramount today in securing any type of building permit – small or large so owners BEWARE of the need to access current accessibility before launching new work.