The California Building Standards Law establishes the California Building Standards Commission within the Department of General Services. Existing law requires the commission to approve and adopt building standards and to codify those standards in the California Building Standards Code, which is required to be published once every 3 years.
The State Housing Law establishes statewide construction and occupancy standards for buildings used for human habitation. That law requires the building department of every city or county to enforce within its jurisdiction the provisions of the California Building Standards Code, the provisions of the State Housing Law, and specified other rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to that law. That law authorizes a city or county to adopt alternative building regulations for the conversion of commercial or industrial buildings to joint living and work quarters, as specified.
This bill would additionally authorize the City of Los Angeles (city) to adopt alternative building regulations for the conversion of commercial buildings to residential uses, as specified. The bill would require the city to have a housing element compliant with law and adopt an ordinance facilitating or expediting the review of adaptive reuse projects before the city is authorized to adopt alternative building regulations pursuant to this bill.
This bill, before the city is authorized to adopt alternative building regulations, would require the city to submit proposed alternative building regulations to the commission. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with specified state agencies, to review the proposed alternative building regulations within 90 days of receiving the proposed regulations. The bill would authorize the commission to request the city to revise or amend the proposed regulations in order to protect public health, safety, and welfare. If the commission does not request revisions or amendments within 30 days, the bill would authorize the city to proceed with the adoption of alternative building regulations.
This bill, if the commission requests revisions or amendments to the proposed alternative building regulations, would require the city to consider the requested revisions or amendments and to respond, as specified, within 30 days of receiving the request for revisions or amendments. The bill would require the commission to provide written comments regarding the revisions or amendments to the proposed regulations needed to protect public health, safety, and welfare, if the commission denies the proposed alternative building regulations.
This bill, if the city adopts the approved alternative building regulations, would require those regulations to be adopted at a public meeting of the legislative body of the city. The bill would require the city to submit the adopted alternative building regulations to the commission.
This bill would authorize the commission and other specified state agencies to request additional information from the city regarding regulations adopted pursuant to this bill.
This bill would repeal these provisions and any alternative building standards adopted pursuant to these provisions upon the effective date of specified state adaptive reuse building standards, or January 1, 2029, whichever is earlier.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City of Los Angeles.

Statutes affected:
AB2910: 17958.11 HSC
02/15/24 - Introduced: 17958.11 HSC
03/19/24 - Amended Assembly: 17958.11 HSC
AB 2910: 17958.11 HSC