BILL NUMBER: AB 296 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 21, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 21, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 27, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 25, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 31, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Skinner
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Blumenfield, Fletcher, and Gordon)
(Coauthor: Senator Hancock)
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
An act to add Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 14457)
to Part 5 of Division 3 of Title 2 of Section 14
457 to the Government Code, and to add Section 18941.9 to
the Health and Safety Code, relating to building standards.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 296, as amended, Skinner. Building standards: cool
pavement. Department of Transportation: paving
materials.
(1) Existing law requires provides that
the Department of Transportation to adopt a balanced,
multimodal research and development program, including the research
and development of new technologies is responsible for
the maintenance and improvement of the state highway system .
This bill would establish the Cool Pavements Research and
Implementation Act and would encourage the department to consult and
coordinate with specified state agencies, to implement the act. The
bill would require the department to publish or
make available on the department's Internet Web site
develop one or more standard specifications for cool pavements and
materials , by January 1, 2014 , a Cool Pavements
Handbook to detail specifications, testing protocols, and best
practices for cool pavements .
The bill would require the department to implement one or more
cool pavement pilot projects, with the goal of completion of the
pilot projects no later than January 1, 2018, and to submit a report
to the Legislature with an analysis of the various costs of pavement
surfaces and the results of the cool pavement pilot projects.
(2) The California Building Standards Law requires any building
standard adopted or proposed by a state agency to be submitted to,
and approved or adopted by, the California Building Standards
Commission prior to codification.
This bill would require the commission, in the next triennial
adoption process of the California Green Building Standards
Code that begins on or after January 1, 2015, to consider
incorporating those specifications proposed in the Cool Pavements
Handbook as additional strategies for Heat Island Effect: Hardscape
Alternatives in the California Green Building Standards Code.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 14457 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
14457. (a) On or before January 1, 2014, the department shall,
through a new or existing process, develop one or more standard
specifications for cool pavements or materials, and may identify
existing standard specifications of the department that have cool
pavements or materials.
(b) The department, when developing sustainable cool pavement
technologies and performing life cycle analyses of pavements, shall
consider potential greenhouse gas reductions and energy reductions,
and improvements to local public health, water quality, and other
local and global benefits during the use phase of the pavement.
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares
all of the following:
(a) The heat island effect (HIE) is a phenomenon characterized by
a temperature differential between developed and rural lands.
(b) The cause of the HIE is land modification in urban and
suburban areas, principally with impervious hardscape materials that
absorb more heat energy from the sun than do soil or vegetative
surfaces. As a result, surrounding surface and air temperatures
become artificially elevated contributing to air quality decline and
other public health and environmental issues in urban areas.
(c) Impervious hardscape cover is also a major contributor to
stormwater runoff, contributing to water pollution and elevating
water temperatures.
(d) The intent of this act is to have the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) publish statewide specifications and best
practices for using "cool pavements" that reduce the HIE from
sidewalks, roads, plazas, highways, parking lots, schoolyards, or any
surface designed for vehicular or pedestrian use.
(e) The publication is meant to increase awareness of paving
options that mitigate, rather than contribute to, the HIE and other
impacts of impervious hardscape surfaces. Hardscape alternatives,
also known as "cool pavements," such as those with high solar
reflectivity, provide one or more of the following benefits:
(1) Reduced outdoor surface and air temperatures.
(2) Reduced formation of ground-level ozone or smog.
(3) Reduced wear from diurnal thermal stress.
(4) Indirectly reduced demand for electricity, and thereby reduced
emissions.
(5) Reduced stormwater runoff.
(f) Examples of cool pavements include, but are not limited to,
high albedo pavements and coatings, vegetative surfaces, porous or
pervious pavements that allow water infiltration, and pavements
shaded by trees and other sources of shade.
(g) The specifications, testing protocols, and best practices
established by this act should complement the voluntary
nonresidential provision in the California Green Building Standards
Code on Heat-Island-Effect: Hardscape Alternatives (Section
A5.106.11.1 of Appendix 5 of Part 11 (commencing with Section 101.1)
of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations), while expanding
the allowable ways to meet the goals of that provision.
(h) This act provides for the development of a Cool Pavements
Handbook by the Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in
consultation with other relevant state agencies and departments. The
handbook is intended to be limited to a collection of existing
specifications, testing protocols, and best practices for hardscape
alternatives that reduce the effect specified in subdivision (b),
relative to traditional hardscape surfaces.
(i) This act further provides for one or more cool pavement pilot
projects to be developed and studied to evaluate the economic,
environmental, and public health benefits of cool pavements.
SEC. 2. Chapter 5 (commencing with Section
14457) is added to Part 5 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government
Code, to read:
CHAPTER 5. COOL PAVEMENTS RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENTATION ACT
14457. For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions
shall apply:
(a) "Cool pavement project" means a project that uses a cool
pavement to reduce the heat island effect by meeting the criteria
specified in the Cool Pavements Handbook published pursuant to
Section 14459.
(b) "Heat island effect" or "HIE" means the temperature
differential between developed and rural areas caused by impervious
hardscape materials.
14458. (a) In implementing this chapter, the department is
encouraged to consult and coordinate with the Department of General
Services, the California Building Standards Commission, the State
Water Resources Control Board, the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, the State Air Resources
Board, the State Water Quality Control Board, the Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection, the Strategic Growth Counsel, and any
other relevant state department or agency.
(b) The department may enter into an agreement with the United
States Department of Transportation, the United States Environmental
Protection Agency, the United States Department of Energy, or other
federal agencies, to coordinate implementation of Sections 14459 and
14460, including studying the environmental benefits, energy savings,
life cycle, and durability of various pavement options.
(c) This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the Cool
Pavements Research and Implementation Act.
14459. (a) On or before January 1, 2014, the department shall,
with input from other relevant agencies listed in subdivision (a) of
Section 14458, publish or make available on its Internet Web site a
Cool Pavements Handbook that incorporates existing specifications,
testing protocols, and best practices, as appropriate, for cool
pavement use.
(b) The Cool Pavements Handbook shall identify cool pavement
paving materials or techniques that do one or more of the following:
(1) Reduce surface temperature relative to traditional, unshaded
asphalt concrete.
(2) Have a light color or high albedo.
(3) Reduce diurnal thermal stress.
(4) Remove greenhouse gases through photocatalytic or
photosynthetic processes.
(5) Reduce stormwater runoff via increased water infiltration to
the underlying surface, including, but not limited to, using porous
pavements, open-grid systems, vegetative surfaces, or bioswales.
(c) The department may include in the Cool Pavements Handbook any
other material or technique found by the departments to reduce the
HIE, ozone formation, or stormwater runoff.
(d) The Cool Pavements Handbook shall include specifications and
best practices, where available, for sidewalks, roads, plazas,
highways, parking lots, schoolyards, or any surface designed for
vehicular or pedestrian use.
(e) The Cool Pavements Handbook shall be referenced in the
relevant sections of the department's Construction Manual and be made
available to the public.
14460. (a) The department shall implement one or more cool
pavement pilot projects, with the goal of completing construction by
January 1, 2015, and completing an analysis of the pilot projects no
later than January 1, 2018.
(b) On or before January 1, 2018, the department shall submit a
report to the Legislature in accordance with Section 9795. The report
shall include an analysis of the upfront and life-cycle costs of
using various pavement surfaces and the results of the cool pavement
pilot projects. The report shall also include the environmental
benefits, energy savings, and durability of various pavement options.
(c) The requirement for submitting a report imposed under
subdivision (b) is inoperative on January 1, 2022, pursuant to
Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.
SEC. 3. SEC. 2. Section 18941.9 is
added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
18941.9. The commission shall, in the next triennial adoption
process for the code adopted after January 1, 2015, consider
incorporating those specifications proposed pursuant to Section
14459 14457 of the Government Code as
additional strategies for Heat Island Effect: Hardscape Alternatives
in the California Green Building Standards Code (Section A5.106.11.1
of Appendix 5 of Part 11 (commencing with Section 101.1) of Title 24
of the California Code of Regulations).