CALGreen: EV spaces, waste and water on the mandatory checklist

CALGreen (Title 24, Part 11) is the state's mandatory green-building overlay: every new multifamily project carries its EV-infrastructure, waste, water and materials measures on top of the Building Code and Energy Code. None of it is optional, most of it is checked at plan review, and cities increasingly amend the baseline upward.

The measure that moves budgets is EV infrastructure. CALGreen splits multifamily parking into EV-capable (raceway and panel capacity), EV-ready (a live circuit and receptacle) and installed EVSE (chargers on the wall), with required shares set by tables that update every code cycle — and that local amendments frequently push higher. Design around the categories and pull the exact percentages from the current code text and the local ordinance, not a cached summary.

The three-tier structure exists because conduit is cheap at rough-in and brutal afterward: EV-capable spaces bank raceway and electrical capacity for later, EV-ready spaces energize a circuit now, and EVSE spaces put an operating charger on day one. Accessible-parking rules extend to EV charging spaces as well, so the accessible-stall layout and the EV layout have to be solved together, not sequentially.

• Underwriting watch-outs:
• EV load stacks on heat-pump load — the same cycle that electrified heating added vehicle charging, and together they can push the service up a size class. Load-management systems can tame the calculation where the code allows them; either way, coordinate the service application early.
• Local amendments regularly raise EV ratios above the state floor — check the adopting ordinance, not just Part 11.
• The retrofit asymmetry is the argument for over-provisioning: extra raceways and panel space at construction cost little against trenching a built garage later, and EV-equipped spaces are increasingly a leasing and revenue line.

Construction-and-demolition waste needs 65% diversion under a written waste-management plan, documented through hauler tickets and verified before final. The design side pairs it with permanent recycling and organics storage space, which local space standards often enlarge beyond the state baseline.

The rest of the mandatory checklist: water-efficient fixtures under maximum-flow caps (showerheads at 1.8 gpm and 1.28-gallon water closets are the familiar benchmarks), low-VOC paints, adhesives, flooring and composite wood, and commissioning or systems-verification obligations that scale up on larger buildings and the nonresidential portions of mixed-use. Individually small, collectively a spec you should hand the design team on day one rather than retrofit at plan check.

CALGreen also publishes voluntary Tier 1 and Tier 2 packages — deeper versions of the mandatory measures — and many cities adopt a tier as mandatory by local amendment. The practical baseline is therefore jurisdiction-specific: the same building can carry materially different EV, water and materials scope one city over.

Parking law changed around CALGreen: AB 2097 barred minimum parking requirements near major transit (the zoning framework lives in the state zoning law), but CALGreen's EV ratios apply to the spaces you do build. Right-sizing the count first and unbundling parking from rents pairs naturally with the EV tiering — fewer, better-equipped spaces.

• Underwriting watch-outs:
• Set the parking count before applying EV ratios — every deleted space also deletes its EV obligation, load and cost.
• Unbundled, EVSE-equipped stalls can carry charging revenue, but metering and billing have to be designed into the electrical system, not bolted on.
• Waste-plan enforcement lands at the end of the job — missing diversion documentation is an avoidable certificate-of-occupancy delay, so keep hauler documentation current through construction.