California multifamily developer guides
Building Codes & Construction Standards
Which Title 24 parts govern a multifamily project, CBC occupancy and construction-type basics, the 2025 Energy Code and CALGreen mandates, existing-building and adaptive-reuse triggers, fire and WUI requirements, and accessibility under CBC Chapter 11A and the federal Fair Housing Act — with the 2025 code text in the library.
Title 24 for multifamily: which parts govern your project
Twelve parts on a three-year cycle — and the permit application date is what locks in which edition governs your project.
Read the guide →CBC basics for apartments: R-2, construction types and the 5-over-1
After zoning, nothing moves cost per unit like construction type — the CBC's height, area and sprinkler tables decide what actually pencils.
Read the guide →The 2025 Energy Code: heat pumps, solar and the all-electric drift
The 2025 code doesn't ban gas — it makes gas designs pay their way against a heat-pump baseline, which is why most new projects go all-electric anyway.
Read the guide →CALGreen: EV spaces, waste and water on the mandatory checklist
AB 2097 killed parking minimums near transit, but every space you still build carries CALGreen EV obligations — and the electrical load that comes with them.
Read the guide →The CEBC and adaptive reuse: what alteration level are you buying into?
The CEBC's bargain: the work you touch must comply and the rest can mostly stay — until a change of occupancy or a structural threshold flips the whole building into scope.
Read the guide →Fire code and WUI zones: access, water and hardened exteriors
Fire-access geometry and fire flow can redraw a site plan before zoning ever does — and a WUI designation adds a hardened envelope plus an insurance problem.
Read the guide →Accessibility in multifamily: CBC 11A meets the federal Fair Housing Act
Federal design liability doesn't stay with the builder — post-1991 buildings carry their accessibility defects to every new owner.
Read the guide →More developer guides
- Density Bonus & Zoning Incentives
- Entitlements & Streamlined Approvals
- Rent Control & Tenant Protections
- Demolition, Replacement Housing & Relocation
- Impact Fees, Exactions & Special Taxes
- CEQA & Environmental Review
- Affordable Housing Finance: LIHTC, Bonds & Rental Subsidies
- Subdivision, Condo Maps & Development Agreements
- Site Selection & Development Due Diligence
Every rule cited in these guides links to the verbatim statute or regulation in the California Code Library and the federal housing-law library.
Apply these rules to a real parcel
Ask the AI how building codes & construction play out in a specific city or county — grounded in the code text.