Law/Legislative
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SB 481
An act to add and repeal Section 34177.8 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to redevelopment. Click here for more information.
AB 617
An act to amend Sections 40920.6, 42400, and 42402 of, and to add Sections 39607.1, 40920.8, 42411, 42705.5, and 44391.2 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to nonvehicular air pollution. Click here for more information.
New Building Electrification Ordinance
The Sacramento City Council adopted the New Building Electrification Ordinance on June 1, 2021. The Ordinance is a “reach code”, which is a local building energy code that “reaches” beyond State minimum requirements for energy use in building design and construction. The Ordinance supports the City’s climate goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from fossil fuel combustion within buildings by requiring new buildings to be constructed as all-electric. Existing buildings (room additions, remodels, tenant improvements, etc.) will not be affected by the Ordinance.
The effective dates for the New Building Electrification Ordinance are as follows:
- New buildings which are 1-3 stories: January 1, 2023
- New buildings which are 4-stories or more: January 1, 2026
The Ordinance provides specific limited exemptions until December 31, 2025, for:
- Manufacturing process loads within industrial or manufacturing facilities.
- Cooking equipment in ground-floor food establishments.
- Water heating in regulated affordable housing projects when virtual net energy metering is not available.
There is no additional application process for the three limited exemptions listed above. The Ordinance also provides for an infeasibility waiver process that will not have a sunset date. The infeasibility waiver process will provide flexibility for projects where all-electric is shown to be infeasible by the applicant.
As part of the preparation for implementing the New Building Electrification Ordinance the City is convening in early 2022 an advisory technical panel that is tasked with vetting barriers where technologies are not yet market-ready for electrification and providing input on an infeasibility waiver guidance document for electrifying new construction. The infeasibility waiver guidance document will be adopted by City Council prior to the January 1, 2023 effective date.
All electric construction is feasible and cost effective in most cases, but to avoid unintended consequences, project applicants are advised to plan their projects as all-electric from the beginning.
The adopted Ordinance, topic-based building electrification webinars, an extensive Electrification Ordinance Q&A, and other resources can be found on the New Building Electrification project webpage at: http://www.cityofsacramento.org/SacElectrificationOrdinance
For information on the development of an existing building electrification strategy, visit the project webpage at: http://www.cityofsacramento.org/SacExistingBuildingElectrification.