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Gilroy introduces 2025 California building and fire codes with local amendments; public hearing set for Aug. 18
Summary
City staff presented the 2025 California building and fire code adoption package with local amendments carried forward and, due to AB 130 timeline constraints, introduced the ordinances and set a public hearing for Aug. 18; council votes to introduce and set hearing passed unanimously.
The Gilroy City Council on Aug. 4 introduced ordinances to adopt the 2025 California Building Standards Codes (Title 24) and the 2025 California Fire Code with local amendments and set a public hearing for Aug. 18 for final adoption.
Community Development Director Sharon Gohi told the council that the state’s AB 130 (summer 2025 budget trailer legislation) compressed the timeframe for local jurisdictions to adopt residential amendments that are “substantially equivalent” to previously filed modifications. To preserve Gilroy’s locally tailored safety, seismic and wildfire protections, staff worked under an accelerated schedule to prepare proposed ordinances that carry forward the city’s prior local amendments into the 2025 code cycle.
Building Official Hipolito (Iqbali) Olmos reviewed key building-code carryovers — for example, maintaining locally adopted fee and plan-review practices, undergrounding and main-disconnect electrical requirements, plumbing guidance for copper tubing suited to local soils, and continued energy and green-building appendices. Fire Marshal Jonathan Quick explained that many prior local fire-safety provisions have been integrated into the statewide code, but Gilroy retains local amendments for the wildland-urban interface. Examples include sprinkler coverage in high-risk spaces and a new, research-based requirement that the 0-to-5-foot zone around structures be kept free of combustible landscaping materials in certain WUI areas.
Gohi said the local package will be filed with the California Building Standards Commission so the city meets AB 130 deadlines and preserves current protection levels into the next code cycle. Councilmembers asked questions about how the WUI rules will affect new hillside construction and landscaping; staff said the changes apply to new homes and significant remodels in mapped WUI and hillside zones and that staff will provide guidance for builders and landscapers.
Council voted 7-0 to introduce the building-code and fire-code ordinances by title and to set Aug. 18 as the public hearing date for adoption. Staff said the new code set with local amendments will take effect statewide on Jan. 1, 2026, per the state schedule once the city files required findings.
