ENCINITAS — The Encinitas City Council and city staff must act quickly to maintain or expand building codes, in an effort to keep local control over construction standards.
Updates to building and fire codes are required to be submitted to the California Building Standards Commission by local municipalities every three years in lockstep with the state’s own updated standards. Encinitas most recently went through that process in 2022, according to city records.
On June 30 — just before the City Council recess — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 130, which aims to remove barriers to housing construction. The law also prevents a city or county from changing building standards between Oct. 1, 2025, and June 1, 2031, unless one of the following conditions are met: the changes are in effect as of Sept. 30; the changes are necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety; the change is related to homes’ vulnerability to wildfires; or if the change addresses previously adopted local general plans with an eye toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In an effort to meet the criteria of having building policies in place by Sept. 30, Encinitas city staff proposed several reach codes. These codes allow local governments to enact building standards that go further than the state’s in terms of fire safety, energy efficiency and other goals.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers expressed frustration with feeling rushed on implementing these policies.
“We all know this is a very crammed schedule because the state dropped it on us during the middle of break,” Ehlers said. “This is ridiculous.”
“AB 130 is scary,” Councilmember Jim O’Hara said. “It’s a reason to vote for different people next time around, as it takes away our local zoning rights and it may even make what we’re doing here a moot point.”
Crystal Najera, sustainability manager for the city, said of the 20 measures in the Encinitas Climate Action Plan, adopted in 2020, eight would require building reach codes. Reach codes related to energy efficiency are also required to be cost-effective.
Several of the proposed reach codes would carry forward existing policies. One would require new single-family homes with gas furnaces to identify and ready a location to support an electric heat pump in the future, according to city documents. Another would require single- and multi-family additions of a certain valuation to install a minimum of one of 12 energy efficiency measures, such as energy efficient windows.
Others would require new single-family homes to pre-plumb for grey water capabilities, and require single-family homes to be capable of powering electric vehicles.
Najera said the city hopes to implement the reach codes before Oct. 1 to continue current practices, but that staff would also monitor the implementation of the state law after that deadline.
“We’d like to get better clarification on what the conditions and exceptions are in that code,” she said. “There could be a possibility where we could bring back local code amendments using those conditions. It’s just not clear yet, because the law is so new.”
The council did not vote to move forward with the city staff’s proposed amendments at the Aug. 13 meeting. Rather, councilmembers instructed staff to return with the proposed reach codes as well as more certainty surrounding the state law for discussion at a special meeting on Aug. 27.
If a consensus can be reached on which to move forward with, the council could introduce and adopt the policies over the course of two meetings in September, just in time to meet the deadline.
O’Hara expressed concerns about the impact of reach codes on affordable housing, saying that the policies beyond state requirements might actually create an equity problem and make it harder for low- to moderate-income residents to find housing.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re building luxury homes or affordable homes, the builder doesn’t pay for it,” O’Hara said. “The buyer does and then the renter does from the buyer in that case.”
Council Member Luke Shaffer shared O’Hara’s concerns about affordable housing.
“You look at what affordable housing equates to in our city, and a lot of people wouldn’t think that’s affordable,” Shaffer said.
Additionally, he questioned the safety concerns around requiring lithium ion battery charging stations in homes, given the fire risks. Shaffer said that a player he coaches experienced a home fire caused by electric batteries.
Interim Fire Marshal Jordan Villagomez said that there has been “an uptick in those kinds of fires for garages and batteries” involving lithium ion technology.
In 2021, Encinitas became the first city in San Diego County to adopt a “green building” reach code that essentially required all new developments to include electric appliances rather than gas-powered. However, the city suspended this reach code in 2023 after a federal appeals court struck down a similar law in the City of Berkeley banning the installation of natural gas piping in new buildings.
