REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Adopt a Resolution Suspending Enforcement of Sunnyvale Municipal Code Sections 16.42.030 through 16.42.080 Related to All-Electric Requirements for New and Substantially Reconstructed Buildings, and Direct Staff to Investigate Alternatives to Achieve Building Electrification
Report
BACKGROUND
In 2014, the City of Sunnyvale Climate Action Plan was adopted to provide strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The plan was comprehensively updated and renamed the Climate Action Playbook (Playbook) in 2019 with updated goals to reduce greenhouse emissions by 56% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. The goals of the Playbook are to: (a) exceed the State of California's target of reducing GHG emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030 (per SB 32); and (b) make progress towards the State's target of 80 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050 (per Governor's Executive Order S-3-05).
To support the 2019 Playbook goals of reducing GHG emissions by minimizing the use of natural gas, the Council adopted an ordinance, sometimes referred to as the Reach Codes, on December 1, 2020, to require all-electric construction for new and substantially reconstructed buildings. The provisions were revised and readopted in 2022 in Sunnyvale Municipal Code Chapter 16.42 when the City completed its periodic adoption and local amendments of the International Codes. In addition to all-electric requirements, the 2022 ordinance prohibits gas-related utility meters on properties subject to the all-electric provisions. While there are limited exceptions to the all-electric requirement for non-residential projects, there are no exceptions for new or substantially reconstructed residential projects.
A recent federal court decision has invalidated this type of all-electric requirement. In July 2019, the City of Berkeley adopted an ordinance that prohibited natural gas infrastructure in newly constructed buildings, with a limited exception if it w...
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