BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1693
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 14, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                   AB 1693 (Ma) - As Introduced:  January 28, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              Business and  
          Professions  Vote:                            11-0 (Consent)

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill extends the code adoption cycle for California  
          building standards from 12 months to 18 months.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Likely minor savings to the Building Standards Commission (BSC)  
          from reducing the number of interim code adoption cycles from  
          two to one.

           COMMENTS  

           Background and Purpose  .  The BSC publishes the California  
          Building Standards Code every three years.  Legislation enacted  
          in 1992 required the commission to develop, adopt, and publish  
          updates to the code annually in the intervening years.  This was  
          done to preclude state agencies from proposing new building  
          regulations on a continuous basis.  According to the author, "?  
          the Code has become increasingly complicated in nature,  
          requiring a large amount of staff time to write and analyze the  
          changes and regulations, most of which are technical in nature.

          "The growing feat of completing the Code has become more and  
          more demanding for state agencies to complete within a 12-month  
          window.  The short timeframe makes it difficult for the State to  
          incorporate public input and provide thorough education and  
          training for builders, architects, and building officials."  AB  
          1693, sponsored by the California Building Industry Association,  
          is intended to address this situation by extending to code  
          adoption cycle from 12 to 18 months.









                                                                  AB 1693
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           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081