Council holds first reading to adopt 2025 California Building Standards Code with local amendments

City staff presented ordinance 786, a package to repeal and replace Division 8.02 of the Piedmont City Code and adopt the 2025 California Building Standards Code (Title 24, parts 1–12) with narrowly tailored local amendments. Staff emphasized the state’s stricter limits on permissible local changes, the consolidation of wildfire‑related provisions into the new Wildland‑Urban Interface (WUI) code and the proposed effective date of most provisions on Jan. 1, 2026; the energy‑code amendments will follow CEC review.

Planning and building staff described outreach efforts and noted that some local amendments were deleted or revised to align with state law. Fire Chief Dave Brannigan said designating Piedmont as a WUI lets the city retain more local control and supports “home hardening” and vegetation management measures. On procedural questions about next steps, the city attorney summarized the council’s action: “the action from the council tonight is to conduct the 1st reading of ordinance 7 86 n s, and then adopt the local amendment, and then determine that the ordinance is exempt from CEQA and, meets the exemptions of a b 1 30.”

Council members asked staff about the California Energy Commission timeline for energy‑code approvals; staff said the CEC typically takes about three months but that backlogs from AB1130 submissions may delay review. Councilmember Ramsey moved to adopt the first reading and find the ordinance exempt from CEQA and AB130; the motion was seconded by the Vice Mayor and the first reading passed unanimously. A second reading is scheduled for Dec. 1.