In This Issue:

• STATE BUDGET UPDATE – PROPOSAL TO CUT STATE WORKER PAY

• AB 32 REGULATION DETAIL RELEASED – COMMENTS NEEDED

• PARCEL MAP EXTENSION BILL SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

• CALIFORNIA ADOPTS NATION'S FIRST STATEWIDE BUILDING CODE

• CBPA 2008 CALENDAR

STATE BUDGET UPDATE – PROPOSAL TO CUT STATE WORKER PAY

Twenty five days into the new fiscal year and still no state budget. However, one of the most dramatic efforts to spur an agreement was dropped on the table. The Governor has threatened to cut the pay of thousands of state employees to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour, until lawmakers reach a deal. A spokesperson has confirmed that the Governor is contemplating signing an executive order that would implement the plan.

Longtime political observers in Sacramento are a hard bunch to shock but this proposal has done just that. If successful, the move will be seen as a brilliant strategy. However, since public employee unions are so active and engaged some worry this might be the political equivalent of smacking a beehive with a switch. Click here to read one blog’s opinion on this move.
 

AB 32 REGULATION DETAIL RELEASED – COMMENTS NEEDED

The AB 32 Scoping Plan Appendices have just been released. This document contains much of the detail for plans to implement a landmark law, which mandates that California reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels.

As the AB 32 regulatory process continues to move forward, we hope to keep you informed and solicit comments. Overall, our industry remains committed to assuring that the state can reach the goals outlined in this law. However, in an initial read of this draft plan, some concerns have been identified:

• Building Sector is not included in Cap-and-Trade program.
• Aggressive Solar Goals may not be cost effective or technologically feasible.
• Water efficiency goals may be physically impossible to meet.
• Zero Net Energy for buildings standards may be technologically impossible to meet.
• Benefits of LEED-equivalency are overstated since they use national figures and not California specific comparisons.
• Efficacy of mandates on upgrading existing buildings energy efficiency must be assessed.
• Time of Sale requirements for energy upgrades may result in buildings not changing hands and not having any investment made.
• Land use and site specific issues in Section 2.

Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, will probably be of most interest as they deal with Land Use, Planning Issues, Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Solar, Water Efficiency/Recycling/Runoff, Green Buildings, and Energy Efficiency of Existing Commercial Buildings.

Click here for a copy of the DRAFT AB 32 Scoping Plan Appendices (June 2008) [2MB .pdf]. If you would like to submit comments for inclusion in the industry-wide response, please send them to Matthew Hargrove by Wednesday, August 6. Your help in reviewing this document and providing comment is much appreciated.
 

PARCEL MAP EXTENSION BILL SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

SB 1185 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) a measure vigorously supported by industry, has been signed by Governor Schwarzenegger. The law assists the California and local economies by extending for a period of 12 months the expiration date of existing and unexpired tentative tract maps and parcel maps so that the housing contained in those maps will not be lost due to the current economic downturn. SB 1185 also authorizes (but does not compel) a city or county, upon request by a project sponsor, to grant an additional 12 month discretionary extension.

New home construction in California has been experiencing a steep and dramatic decline for some time now with economists and industry experts anticipating the decline to continue through 2008 and into 2009. The most recent figures from the Construction Industry Research Board (the most reliable source for tracking residential building permits in the state) project that a total of 79,000 units will be constructed in 2008, a 30% dip in new home production from 2007 levels and far off the mark of the 220,000 needed to keep pace with population growth and new job formation.

SB 1185 targets maps most in peril of expiring in the near-term. Any tentative map that is in existence and has not expired by the date the bill becomes effective and that will expire on or before January 1, 2011, gets the benefit of the SB 1185 mandatory 12 month extension.
 

CALIFORNIA ADOPTS NATION'S FIRST STATEWIDE BUILDING CODE

In case you missed it…. California has adopted the first set of statewide “green” building codes in the nation when the codes were approved this week by the Building Standards Commission (BSC). CBPA members representing all types of properties (commercial, industrial, and retail) have spent months working on iterations of this historic code and submitting comments through the public process. We think this is a blueprint that will produce ever increasing sustainable building, while being economically feasible and technologically attainable. Adopting these codes through the existing iterative standards process is the best and quickest way to bring about this monumental change. Several attempts to mandate private certification standards, instead of conducting this public iterative process, have been defeated in the past few years by industry efforts.

Click here to read the Governor’s Statement.

Click here to read the L.A. Times Story.

Click here to read the CBPA press release.

Click here to read the adopted California green code.
 

CBPA 2008 CALENDAR

OCTOBER 23 --

CBPA Board Meeting
The Irvine Company

CBPA Industry Awards Dinner
Island Hotel, Newport Beach