Following the lead of nearly two dozen other Bay Area cities and counties, the Hayward City Council on March 3, 2020, is set to ban the use of natural gas in new construction as part of the 2019 update to the California energy and green building standards codes. If adopted, the ordinance would eliminate natural gas from new single-family and multi-family residential up to three stories. Non-residential and high-rise residential would be permitted to use a mix of energy sources if the builder installs additional energy efficient solar and battery storage equipment. Lastly, the ordinance requires electric vehicle charging infrastructure in all new buildings. Click HERE to view the agenda and associated staff reports. Back in July 2019, Berkeley was the first Bay Area city to prohibit natural gas in new construction. Numerous cities and counties have or are planning to do the same including San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Menlo Park, Alameda, Morgan Hill, Santa Rosa and Windsor. Legal challenges have been filed against the code changes in Berkeley and Windsor, but the outcome remains unknown. For questions or comments, contact BIA’s Lisa Vorderbrueggen at lvorderbrueggen@biabayarea.org.
