Butte County CalGreen

Butte County CalGreen

Butte County CalGreen compliance is reasonably straightforward. What isn’t straightforward is their CalGreen NonResidential Checklist.

Butte County has adopted the latest edition of the California Green Building Standards Code as codified in the county Municipal Code. You can read the adoption language and other sections of the muni code here.

From our experience the Butte County Building Department has been very pleasant and accommodating to deal with. They have taken a positive and proactive approach to helping residents get their permit approved. This is certainly not the the case in many jurisdictions in the state. They do a good job of keeping you informed via their active Facebook page.

In addition the building department publishes helpful forms to guide you through your permit process.

When a CalGreen Checklist is Required

A CalGreen Checklist must be submitted along with your plans for all new residential and nonresidential project’s. The intent of the checklist is to document and verify that the requirements of the California Green Building Standards Code have been incorporated into the permit documents.

Residential renovations that increase the home’s conditioned area, volume, or size also required to submit a CalGreen Checklist. 

Commercial project renovations that have a permit value of $200,000 or more, or an addition greater than 1,000 square feet, require the submission of the CalGreen Non-Residential Mandatory Measures Checklist.

The Butte County Residential CalGreen Checklist

The Butte County Residential CalGreen Checklist can be downloaded here. The residential checklist is reasonably easy to understand as it does a good job of explaining the requirements. 

It is important to understand that the checklist must be properly filled out and submitted with your permit application. The intent pf the checklist is to document, by page reference, exactly where the specific requirements are shown on the permit plans. 

What may not be clear to those not familiar with the CalGreen Code is whether a particular requirement applies to your project or not. The checklist gives no guidance on when and where certain items apply. This information can only be found in the CalGreen Code itself.

One of the problems we see is project’s getting submitted with extra requirements that are not specifically applicable to their project. This can be a waste of the owner’s time and money. It’s important to understand that if you over-commit on your checklist requirements, the building department will not bring this to your attention! They are not going to tell you you don’t have to do something that is already on your plans. They will simply assume that you are choosing to exceed the minimum requirements of the code – and they will never have a problem with this.

Unless you are familiar with the California Green Building Standards Code (aka CalGreen) you may be better off engaging a CalGreen specialist to assist you with your checklist submittal. The few dollars you spend on this service can save you time, money, and minimize problems at project closeout. 

The Butte County NonResidential CalGreen Checklist

The Butte County CalGreen NonResidential Checklist is not simple, at all. What they have done is copy the checklist right from the CalGreen Code. This checklist is intended for those intimately familiar with the code. 

You will note that there is no description of the requirements. Nothing to clue you in to the details of each requirement or guidance on what items may be applicable to your project. 

Many of these items will not apply to your project but the uninformed will have no way of knowing which ones. Arbitrarily checking “yes” to every item listed here will end up with thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs. It may also result in delays and unexpected change orders at closeout when the some of the checked items are not properly incorporated into the project. 

If there was ever a time to hire a CalGreen specialist, this would be it. Whether you are a developer, owner, design/build contractor, or architect please give us a call. You will find our fees are very reasonable and our turnaround time is three business days or less. 

You can download the complete Butte County NonResidential Mandatory Measures checklist here.

At CalGreen Energy Services we are specialists in the CalGreen Code. CalGreen is our only business. If you have a CalGreen question please feel free to give us a call. We are happy to share our knowledge.   

Call us today and let us show you how we can help with your project.

Gary Welch

Email: gary@calgreenenergyservices.com

Phone: 707-328-5299