During the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) meeting on January 27, 2017, the CBSC commissioners approved emergency building standards proposed by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), the Division of the State Architect-Structural Safety (DSA-SS) and CBSC.
These emergency standards impact the construction of exterior elevated elements (EEEs) for residential occupancies, including factory built housing, hotels, motels, and apartment buildings, as well as state buildings, and public schools. The EEE regulations include additional details on construction documents, special inspections of EEEs during construction, an increase in structural live loads for balconies and decks, sloped waterproofing surface to reduce water retention, added ventilation to the underside of enclosed EEEs. These emergency standards also reinstate a maintenance provision allowing local jurisdictions to re-inspect buildings if deemed necessary.
The emergency building standards were developed after research was performed by an EEE subcommittee formed by CBSC and various state agencies, in response to the June 2015 Berkeley balcony failure, which resulted in loss of life and serious injury. Concurrently, the International Code Council (ICC) has proposed amendments for inclusion in the 2018 edition of International Building Code and International Existing Building Code which enhanced building standards for EEEs. The CBSC commissioners concurred with the participating state agencies’ finding of emergencies, which state that early adoption of the model code amendments is warranted to help prevent potential future failures of EEEs.
The complete text of each state agencies’ emergency building standards are included in the attachment available on the CBSC Emergency Rulemaking webpage: (http://www.bsc.ca.gov/Rulemaking/emergency.aspx) and contained within the following state agency submittals:
Questions concerning the emergency regulations and application to specific occupancies should be directed to as follows:
CBSC (916) 263-0916 (For state buildings, CSU and UC applications)
HCD 916) 445-9471 (For residential applications)
DSA-SS /CC (916) 445-8100 (For K-12 public schools and community colleges)