Mission Viejo council moves forward on 2025 building and fire codes, municipal claims amendment and consent calendar

The Mission Viejo City Council voted on multiple procedural and regulatory items at its Sept. 9 meeting, including introduction of the 2025 California building and fire codes, an associated electric‑vehicle charging permitting ordinance, and a municipal code amendment on claims handling.

Larry Longacre, director of community development, described the package as the state’s required triennial code update and said local adoption allows the city to implement and enforce the 2025 code editions starting in early 2026. “State law requires that all California cities adopt these state codes,” Longacre said as he summarized staff’s recommendations. Staff recommended introducing ordinances to adopt the 2025 California administrative, building, residential, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, energy, green building standards and related codes by reference, along with the 2024 editions of the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and the International Property Maintenance Code; the package also adds a streamlined permitting process for electric‑vehicle charging stations consistent with state law.

Council moved and the motions passed without recorded public opposition; staff said the building/fire package will return to council for a second reading on Oct. 23. Separately, the council introduced and approved an ordinance amending chapter 3.16 of the municipal code to grant the city manager authority to delegate responsibility for city claims handling — a primarily administrative function — with the ordinance effective 30 days after a second reading scheduled for Sept. 23.

The consent calendar was approved at the meeting without items pulled for separate discussion.