Pacifica studies 2025 California building-code updates; council asks staff to research reach-code exceptions

Pacifica city officials held a two-hour study session on proposed local amendments to the 2025 California Building Standards Code, focusing on wildfire requirements, electric-vehicle readiness and state limits on new local residential building standards.

The session centered on how recent state and federal developments — including new Cal Fire “local responsibility area” fire-hazard maps and Assembly Bill 130, a budget trailer bill that places a temporary moratorium on some local residential building amendments — affect the city’s existing “reach” codes and what staff should prepare for formal ordinance adoption later this year.

The study session matters because the 2025 state codes take effect Jan. 1, 2026, and local jurisdictions must decide which existing local amendments to readopt, which to let be superseded by the state code, and whether any exceptions in AB 130 allow locally tailored rules that would incentivize electrification while remaining legally defensible.

Community development director Samantha Updegrave opened the presentation with a summary of the agenda and the legal frame. “We’re here to talk about the 2025 California Building Standards Code update,” she told the council. “The study session is structured to provide information about the triennial Code updates and enable the city council to consider recent state law changes that prohibit changes to residential building codes between 10/01/2025 and June 2031 and to provide direction on future research related to reach codes in conjunction with annual goal setting and preparation of our local ordinance.”

Updegrave and certified building official Greg McFann reviewed Pacifica’s existing reach-code history. The city first adopted reach-code provisions in 2019 — including all-electric requirements with limited exceptions and “electric-ready” prewiring when gas remained — and tightened those in 2022 to narrow exceptions and add EV readiness, photovoltaic rules for many building types, and additional geotechnical and undergrounding provisions.

Staff told the council two technical areas already are effectively covered by the 2025 California Building Code and would be left to the state code: certain EV-ready signage/automatic-load-management language and specific electrical-vehicle signage rules. Where state code is as restrictive or more restrictive, staff recommended rescinding duplicate local language and defaulting to the state standard.

Wildfire rules and new Cal Fire maps were a central focus. Acting Deputy Fire Chief Craig Whitner explained that Cal Fire recently issued updated local responsibility area maps for Pacifica and that the 2025 code reorganized wildfire provisions into a new Part 7 (wildland-urban interface code). “The state is telling us by January 2026 what is currently required in the very high, the red areas for construction will be required in the high areas,” Whitner said, describing how requirements that once applied only to “very high” hazard zones will expand to “high” zones in the new cycle.

Whitner and McFann emphasized that the Part 7 requirements apply primarily to new construction and certain remodels affecting exterior assemblies (roofing, exterior walls, vents and defensible-space measures), not wholesale retrofits of existing structures. They also said local evidence could support narrowly tailored adjustments to the statewide maps but that creating such a local map or ordinance would require additional study and supporting data.

One major legal constraint discussed was Assembly Bill 130, enacted as a budget trailer bill. Updegrave summarized the bill’s effect as placing a moratorium on new state and local residential building standards from Oct. 1, 2025, until June 30, 2031, with five narrow exceptions (including emergency home-hardening standards and local amendments consistent with a general plan approved before June 10, 2025, that permit mixed-fuel construction while incentivizing all-electric options as part of an adopted greenhouse-gas reduction strategy).

Because Pacifica’s General Plan 2040 (adopted July 2022) contains goals on energy and greenhouse gas reduction, staff asked whether the council wanted staff to explore one of those AB 130 exceptions — i.e., to study whether an ordinance could be drafted that aligns with the general plan while meeting federal and state legal constraints.

Council members raised several implementation questions for staff research. Vice Mayor Bowles pressed staff to analyze undergrounding requirements and whether exceptions (for recently paved streets, for instance) should remain in place in high-fire areas. Council members also asked staff to confirm where the state code already requires electric-ready wiring for appliances when gas is used, and to quantify differences between “level 1,” “low-power level 2” and full level-2 EV charging requirements and the cost and service impacts for multifamily housing.

Public comment included a technical briefing from Peninsula Clean Energy building-electrification engineer Blake Herschaft, who told the council the agency “tends to recommend level 1 or greater” and explained tradeoffs between on-site service capacity, charger power and resident charging needs.

Council direction and next steps

Council members agreed on three staff tasks: (1) prepare the non‑superseded local reach-code amendments for readoption where the 2025 California Building Code does not already cover the same topic; (2) not to pursue readoption of the city’s existing all-electric building requirement as written — because of the current legal constraints — and instead treat that requirement as superseded by the state cycle; and (3) include a staff study of the AB 130 exceptions in the city’s next goal‑setting and work-plan cycle so the council can consider whether a legally defensible local amendment might be possible that aligns with Pacifica’s General Plan and greenhouse‑gas reduction goals.

Staff said they will return with research and recommended ordinance language in the coming weeks, aiming to present findings in October or November and to bring ordinance language for first reading in late November and a follow-up adoption hearing before the end of the calendar year so that any local amendments would be effective Jan. 1, 2026, if adopted.

What was not decided

No formal ordinance was adopted at the study session. Council members left open the possibility of future local action under AB 130 exceptions but directed staff to complete the analyses described above before bringing any ordinance to the council for votes.

Votes at a glance

- Consent calendar approved unanimously (motion by Vice Mayor Bowles; second by Council Member Wright). The motion passed with all five council members present voting yes. - The council accepted two proclamations read by Mayor Sue Beckmeyer recognizing October 2025 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Fire Prevention Week (no separate roll-call vote recorded beyond the proclamation readings).

Ending

City staff will produce a package of technical analyses — including a comparison table of current Pacifica reach-code language against the 2025 California Building Standards Code, cost estimates for EV readiness vs. installed charging, and options for wildfire‑related local amendments — and return with formal language in time for council direction this fall.

Speakers quoted or referenced in this report include Samantha Updegrave, Community Development Director; Acting Deputy Fire Chief Craig Whitner, North County Fire Authority; Greg McFann, certified building official; Blake Herschaft, building electrification engineer, Peninsula Clean Energy; City Manager Kevin (last name not specified in transcript); Mayor Sue Beckmeyer; Vice Mayor Bowles; Council members Wright, Espinosa and Beier.