The Mountain View City Council voted unanimously to amend the city’s reach codes, including new electric vehicle charging station requirements for existing buildings that make major changes to their parking lots, at a Nov. 1 meeting.
Cities must update their building codes every three years to come into compliance with any code changes at the state level. This process also gives jurisdictions a chance to adopt reach codes, local building codes that go beyond what’s required by the state, which can help cities meet ambitious climate goals.
“I’m pleased to point out that Mountain View has been at the forefront of this effort, and many other sustainability efforts,” said Chief Sustainability and Resiliency Officer Danielle Lee at the Nov. 1 meeting. “We adopted some of the most ambitious reach codes in 2019, and are again poised to adopt all of the recommendations from SVCE (Silicon Valley Clean Energy) in the 2022 cycle.”
While in 2019 the city’s reach code process led to a bold, and rather controversial, ban on natural gas appliances in new homes, this year’s amendments mainly centered on bringing the city into compliance with new state requirements, and in a few cases, recommendations from local agencies like SVCE, the community choice energy program that serves multiple Bay Area cities including Mountain View.
The vast majority of reach codes pertain to new buildings and construction only. But this year, per recommendations from local agencies, the council added a requirement that existing single family buildings reserve breaker spaces and electrical capacity for electric vehicle charging when upgrading an electrical panel. City staff clarified that this doesn’t mean these buildings are required to add electric vehicle chargers — just that they leave enough breaker spaces for that technology, should they upgrade their electrical panel.
“Upgrading a panel typically means the current panel has run out of space or circuits,” Chief Building Official Nena Bizjak explained during the meeting.
Other types of existing buildings, like multi-family, hotels or commercial buildings, are required to turn 10% of their total parking spaces into electric vehicle charging stations when those buildings add parking facilities, or when electrical systems or lighting of existing parking facilities are added or altered, when the work requires a building permit.
In 2019, the council adopted reach codes requiring new construction to cover 50% of the roof in solar panels. This time around, the city decided to ditch that approach and instead will require that new buildings be pre-wired to accommodate an all-electric building, and that they install battery storage to meet new state codes.
“When we adopted the 2019 code, we had adopted a requirement of 50% of the roof being covered in solar panels,” Aarti Shrivastava, the city’s assistant city manager and community development director, said at the meeting. “And we found that was very, very hard for people to meet, and we were constantly having to find alternative means and methods, and exceptions to the code.”
The new reach code requires new buildings to add enough solar pre-wiring to cover all the building’s electricity needs, rather than the 50% solar panel requirement.
“In general, we want to make sure that every building that’s new or considered new construction is able to have wiring and battery installation to meet 100% of its future need through solar panels,” Shrivastava said.
Council members commended the city for maintaining its tradition of reaching beyond what the state building codes require.
“I just want to say, as the only civil engineer who serves on the council, how incredibly important getting things in the building code is,” Council member Pat Showalter said. “Because when they’re in the building code, they’re the rules. And when you hand out the rules to all the developers, and all the contractors, that’s what they understand needs to be done. Setting these requirements is just incredibly powerful.”
The council voted unanimously to adopt the building code as recommended by staff. Here’s the full breakdown on what’s changing in the code, depending on building type: