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Milpitas moves to align with 2025 California Fire Code, approves local amendments
Summary
The Milpitas City Council introduced and adopted an ordinance to adopt the 2025 California Fire Code (based on the 2024 International Fire Code with California amendments), including alignment with Santa Clara County Appendix D for fire apparatus access; council voted unanimously.
The Milpitas City Council voted unanimously on Aug. 19 to adopt Ordinance No. 113.27, which brings the city’s fire code into alignment with the 2025 California Fire Code (the state-adopted version of the 2024 International Fire Code) and includes local amendments intended to support public safety and interjurisdictional consistency.
Deputy Chief Arthur Belton, serving as the city’s fire marshal, said staff collaborated with other Santa Clara County jurisdictions to align local rules across agencies. Belton told the council the ordinance removes an older requirement for “cash rooms” used by fire crews at large facilities, relaxes some tent requirements to the model code standard, adds hazardous-materials monitoring rules to reflect the city’s high-tech industrial base, and adopts Appendix D relating to fire apparatus access to match county apparatus specifications.
"We adopted Appendix D to ensure access for fire apparatus is consistent with county standards," Deputy Chief Arthur Belton said. He explained the change is intended to make sure mutual-aid apparatus from the county can access sites using the same dimensional standards for road width and turning radii.
Belton and staff told the council these updates apply to new development and permits; they are not a retroactive requirement on existing private roads or built infrastructure. "It's not retroactive, so we're clear. It's just for new construction or new development that's going in," Belton said.
No speakers from the public opposed the adoption; one public commenter thanked the fire and police departments for response performance in the community. After the hearing, Councilmember Lian moved to adopt the ordinance, the motion was seconded, and the council approved the ordinance on a unanimous vote.
Staff recommended the council open and close the public hearing and waive further reading of the ordinance title. The ordinance updates the Milpitas Municipal Code to adopt the state model fire code with the local amendments described in the staff report; staff will implement the changes through the city’s permitting and inspection processes.
