BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 301
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: desaulnier
VERSION: 2/14/11
Analysis by: Michelle Leinfelder
FISCAL:no
Hearing date: March 29, 2011
SUBJECT:
Seismic safety retrofits
DESCRIPTION:
This bill updates the requirements dealing with seismic safety
retrofit rehabilitation or alterations to refer to building
codes currently in use in California.
ANALYSIS:
Under current law, a redevelopment agency may take action to
rehabilitate a building to provide for seismic retrofits,
consistent with local, state, and federal law.
The California Building Standards Commission (BSC) establishes
building standards, including seismic standards, for residential
and hospital buildings, schools, and state buildings. These
building codes are adopted every three years. In adopting the
California Building Code, the BSC starts with international
model codes and makes amendments as necessary to reflect local
conditions, such as the need for more stringent seismic
standards.
This bill:
1)Corrects three building code references for seismic retrofits.
i) For unreinforced masonry buildings, the bill removes
the reference to the obsolete Uniform Code for
Building Conservation of the International Conference of
Building Officials and replaces it with a reference to the
current Appendix Chapter A1 of the current California
Existing Building Code.
ii) For historical property, the bill also cites the
SB 301 (DESAULNIER) Page 2
current California Historical Building Code in
addition to the State Historical Building Code.
iii) For buildings other than unreinforced masonry
buildings and historical properties, the bill removes
the reference to the obsolete Uniform Building Code of the
International Conference of Building Officials and replaces it
with a reference to the current
International Existing Building Code.
COMMENTS:
1. Purpose . The author introduced this bill in order to update
statute with the appropriate building code references.
The Uniform Code for Building Conservation of the International
Conference of Building Officials, which is the current
reference for unreinforced masonry buildings, became
obsolete in 2000. The Building Standards Commission has already
adopted this change, so this bill would update statute with the
current, applicable code. For historical property, the
State Historical Building Code is not a "stand alone" code. It
relies on regularly adopted code, such as the latest
adoption of the California Historical Building
Code, which was updated in 2010. For buildings other than
unreinforced masonry buildings and historical
properties, the reference-change from the obsolete Uniform
Building Code to the current International Existing Building
Code has already been adopted by the Building Standards
Commission, so the bill would update statute with the current,
applicable code.
2. Technical amendment . As written, the reference correction for
"buildings other than unreinforced masonry
buildings and historical properties" fails to recognize that
some buildings in the "other" category are already subject to
the California Building Standards Code. The third
provision would be more precisely written, "For buildings other
than
unreinforced masonry buildings and historical properties,
structures subject to the California Building Standards Code
shall use applicable provisions of that Code, and other
structures shall meet the requirements of the current
International Existing Building Code, as applicable."
3. This bill does not change building standards . This bill - as
SB 301 (DESAULNIER) Page 3
it is, or with the recommended technical amendment -
would not change building standards requirements. This bill
only changes how building codes are referenced in statute.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, March 23,
2011)
SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.