Our team has reviewed the 2025 California Building Code (CBC) updates, which will become effective on January 1, 2026. Below is a high-level summary of the relevant changes for industrial buildings:
- Seismic forces go up by 15% to 20%
- Increased emergency egress illumination requirements
- Increased guardrail requirements at retaining walls
- Long term required bicycle parking requirements are doubled
- EV chargers requirements are doubled
- Case by case:
- More solar, battery storage, and updated photovoltaics & battery energy storage standards
- Increased requirements for indoor and outdoor storage of lithium-ion / lithium metal batteries and energy storage systems
- More stringent wildfire and wildland interface provisions
For more information see our detailed code update.
We are tracking the code adoption schedule for our other major markets as well. For more information contact us at info@hparchs.com to discuss the code changes that apply to your project.