Charles Russell, December 20, 2010
At nearly every seminar, I get asked: “Where can I find a City’s adoption level for CALGreen?” Is a city just adopting the mandatory measures, or is the city adopting a Tier or other elevated standard?
When a city adopts or amends a building code, it is required to provide copies of the local code adoption papers with amendments to the Building Standards Commission (BSC). The BSC has indiciated they will be developing a searchable database, which will be available to the public. This database will be a great resource for determining how CALGreen is being adopted in a jurisdiction. The BSC website is available at http://www.bsc.ca.gov/.
Cities that amend the California Energy Code (CEC) are also required by the State to submit findings of fact with the local amendment for review by the California Energy Code (CEC). After the review, CEC files the local amendment. The CEC provides a database for all filed city amendments that is available at http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/2008standards/ordinances/. The listed cities have adopted local ordinances that exceed CEC requirements.