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BACKGROUND The new California Building Code (CBC) was adopted by the State on July 1, 2007, and the City must adopt these codes by January 1, 2008, to continue to be able to issue building permits. The approval of the urgency ordinance provides for the adoption by January 1 by eliminating the need for two readings of the ordinance and the 30 day waiting period before the ordinance becomes effective. The proposed ordinance amends the Pleasanton Municipal Code to coincide with the adoption of the 2007 California Building Technical Codes, more commonly known as the Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical and Fire Codes. These collective codes are also known as the California Building Code (CBC). The major change to the Codes is the decision by the California Building Standards Commission to replace the Uniform Building Code (used since 1927) and the Uniform Fire Code, with the International Building Code (2006 IBC) and the International Fire Code (2006 IFC), as the base model codes for the new 2007 California Building Code and the new 2007 California Fire Code, respectively. These model codes generally represent the minimum standards of the three model codes that were previously used throughout the United States. DISCUSSION The new code standards, in some cases, generally fall below our current standards of construction and life-safety. Staff is proposing code amendments to restore some of the life-safety features back to our existing code standards. In summary, these proposed code amendments do not exceed the existing code standards currently being used by the City. The new Building and Fire Codes rely on automatic fire systems to provide property and life safety protection for buildings and building occupants. To construct any building with an automatic fire sprinkler system in the building is, without doubt, a great asset in almost any fire event. However, allowing automatic fire sprinklers to be used to reduce other passive safety measures such as fire walls, fire rated corridors, and width of required exits, does not account for our local earthquake and wildfire concerns. Passive building protections provide redundancy in the safety aspects of the construction to allow our citizens to exit a building safely. More specifically, passive provisions that are eliminated or reduced by the CBC include reduction in the requirements for fire rated walls along a property line which would cause unprotected openings right next to protected openings, reduction of the distance that exits must be separated in a building, increasing a dead end corridor from 20 lineal feet to 50 lineal feet (which is an issue in smoke filled rooms), and the removal of fire blocking and draft stopping in ceilings, attics and concealed spaces. The passive safety measures are important because the City of Pleasanton is subject to natural disasters, including earthquake events from nearby faults, which could eliminate availability of water for the automatic sprinkler systems. Pleasanton's water distribution system, including water tanks, pumps, and underground piping, is all vulnerable to Page 2 of 3