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Commission recommends health‑code amendment on ventilation; city will defer multiunit review to state building code
Summary
The commission unanimously recommended Board of Supervisors ordinance file 250806 to amend the health code’s enhanced ventilation standards; the change removes multiunit residential from the local "sensitive use" definition because the 2026 California Building Code will require MERV‑13/balanced‑pressure ventilation citywide.
The Building Inspection Commission on Aug. 20 voted unanimously to recommend Board of Supervisors ordinance file 250806, which amends the San Francisco Health Code (Article 38) to clarify enhanced ventilation requirements and to remove multiunit residential buildings from the local definition of “sensitive use.”
The change responds to newly adopted 2025 California building energy efficiency standards, which take effect Jan. 1, 2026, and require MERV‑13 filtration and balanced/positive pressure ventilation for multiunit residential buildings where ventilation systems are replaced or newly installed. Jen Kallerward, acting director of the Environmental Health Branch, said the state standard will be required citywide and that DBI will assume plan‑review responsibility for multiunit mechanical ventilation going forward: “The state is saying all multiunit buildings across the city…need to have that same standard,” she said.
Deputy City Attorney Rob Capela clarified how code cycles apply to permits: “We do not enforce the 2025 code on 2019 building permits,” he said, explaining that the code applicable to a project is tied to the permit filing date. Commissioners pressed staff about whether a permit pulled under an older code cycle could escape the new statewide requirements; Capela said DBI enforces the code in effect at the time the permit was filed and that the state requirement effectively shifts multiunit ventilation responsibility to DBI.
A motion to recommend file 250806 “as is” was offered and carried unanimously in roll call (yes votes by President Alexander Tute, Commissioners Kalamucci, Chavez, McCleese, Ming, Newman and Williams). The commission recorded no public comment on the item.
Ending: The commission’s recommendation advances the ordinance to the Board of Supervisors. DBI and the Department of Public Health said they will coordinate on plan‑review handoffs and standard operating procedures to ensure projects subject to the state code are properly reviewed by DBI beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
