Assembly committee advances 6-year pause on new residential building-code updates

Assemblymember Schultz introduced AB 306, a bill that would impose a six‑year moratorium on new updates to state building standards that affect residential construction, temporarily preventing local governments from adopting new residential‑only modifications except for emergency health‑and‑safety changes.

Supporters told the committee the pause is intended to reduce construction costs and give developers and affordable‑housing sponsors certainty as California rebuilds after recent Southern California wildfires and addresses a long‑running housing shortfall. "Temporarily pausing additional changes to the building code is one way to do that," Laura Archuleta, president and CEO of Jamboree Housing Corporation, said in testimony. "Affordable housing developers can rely on the project costs that they put in their performance" and avoid repeated re‑underwriting, she said.

The bill's author said AB 306…