California Passes New Construction Regulations to Enhance Accessibility

Construction regulations that will enhance accessibility have been adopted for the 2013 California Building Code. The result is a single set of requirements that meets both state and federal accessibility requirements for the first time ever and enhances accessibility for all Californians.

The Division of the State Architect developed the new regulations. Significant input came from interested parties across the state, including a coalition involving the CalChamber and representatives from a variety of industries, including construction, restaurant, engineering, manufacturing, property management, real estate, local cities and counties, and litigation reform groups.

For more than 20 years, California has developed and maintained its own set of accessibility regulations. While mirroring the federal standards in many instances, the state regulations have been an ever-growing source of costly civil rights litigation that in many instances focused on minute technical differences between the federal and state regulations.

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