Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION NO. 19-170 REAFFIRMING THE CITY'S LOCAL CONTROL TO MAKE CITY-SPECIFIC AMENDMENTS TO THE CALIFORNIA BUILDING STANDARDS CODE AND NOTIFYING THE COUNTY OF SAME (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
This item is on the agenda at the request of Mayor Robles.
The California Building Standards Commission ("Commission") publishes the California Building Standards Code ("CBSC"), which has the force of state law, and which is updated triennially by the Commission. On July 1, 2019, the CBSC published the newest update to the CBSC (the "2019 CBSC").
Under state law, cities and counties may adopt local amendments to the CBSC that they find are reasonably necessary based on local climatic, geological, or topographical conditions, and must do so by January 1, 2020, or the 2019 CBSC will take effect as applied to such jurisdictions without local amendment.
The City contracts with LA County Department of Public Works ("County") for provision of building and safety services, and accordingly, County staff acts as the City's Building Official and Building & Safety Division. The County intends to adopt the 2019 CBSC with updated Countywide amendments effective January 1, 2020 (the "2020 County BSC"), and to present the 2020 County BSC to the City Council for adoption by the City as the City's own code in either November or December of 2019.
The City has the authority under state law to adopt City-specific amendments to the CBSC that are reasonably necessary based on climatic, geological or topographical conditions in the City. However, because the City relies on the County for building and safety services pursuant to contract, the City does not have its own staff that can perform this function. Moreover, the City anticipates that the County will not, at least without prompting or direction, study, develop or propose any City-specific amendments to the CBSC.
Based on ...
Click here for full text