Advocacy - City of LA Building Code Amendments: Adaptive Reuse Alternative Building Standards

Agency / Organization:Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) / Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD)

Status:In Progress - LADBS/LAFD working on alternative building standards Q3/Q4 2024. Currently on hold.

Intent:

The City of Los Angeles is rewriting their alternative building standards for the adaptive reuse of underutilized buildings to convert to residential use. When converting a building from an existing use to a new use, building codes require this change of use to bring the building up to current code. Bringing an existing building into compliance with current code can be impractical, and in most cases not viable, due to existing conditions and the high cost of upgrading buildings to a new use. The purpose is to make the adaptive reuse of our underutilized existing buildings more viable for conversion. The alternative codes will help reduce costs of conversions, as well as provide more certainty for Developers and Architects as to what will be required from LADBS (Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety) and LAFD (Los Angeles Fire Department). Without these alternative codes, each building would have to request modifications to the code that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis for approval which can often take 6-12 months. These new codes would help to reduce the amount of these case-by-case approvals, shave off significant plan check time and provide more certainty on what the City will allow. It is difficult for Developers to get funding or to keep their projects on track if there are significant unknowns that have big cost impacts on projects.

The City of LA would replace the relatively defunct LABC Chapter 85 that provided guidelines and clarity for what alternative standards would be allowed for the adaptive reuse of buildings. Chapter 85 was originally written to assist the new Adaptive Reuse Ordinance that came out in 1999. Both the ordinance and the building code were written particularly with one building type in mind - the 1920s historic high rises that existed in LA’s historic core. This new Chapter 85B is meant to update the old code, as well as to go hand in hand with LA’s new Adaptive Reuse Ordinance coming online in 2025 that will be updated and also expanded to be Citywide. This new ordinance will open up the planning/zoning incentives to the entire city, and also to a much broader range of building types including more recent buildings that may have reasonably compliant fire life safety and other systems.

Omgivning is one of 3 small private sector firms that has been workshopping the alternative codes with LADBS and LAFD. Our boots-on-the-ground experience, as well as our involvement with the Planning Department’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, have been critical to having a holistic understanding of the impact of various code requirements and being able to propose alternatives to appease all parties. In particular, it is difficult for city staff to understand the impact of their policies on the many different types of buildings or existing conditions. It is important to marry the intent of the planning/zoning policy which was to give Developers an incentive for adaptive reuse, such as allowing an addition on the roof. With alternative building codes, we must also take into consideration a roof addition without triggering significant additional requirements which might make that small addition infeasible and could potentially make the entire project infeasible.

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