Title 24 Reports in Hayward

Every street ZIP code in Hayward is climate zone 3. The city's own rules have moved more than its climate: Hayward once required new homes to be all-electric, and its reach code now deals with EV charging instead.

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What the reach code asks for now

The council adopted the current reach code on 2 December 2025, and it took effect with the 2025 codes on 1 January 2026. Each new single-family home or townhome needs two Level 2 EV Ready spaces, where the state asks for one Level 2 capable space. Offices and retail need Level 2 chargers at 20 percent of their spaces and Level 2 EV Capable provision at 30 percent. The staff report behind it recommended no new natural gas rule, pointing to the electrification already in the 2025 code and to a state law that now requires cities to allow mixed-fuel housing.

EV charging belongs to the green building code, so it shows on the electrical and site plans. The energy report is prepared to the statewide 2025 Energy Code; Hayward has no entry on the Energy Commission's 2025 list of local energy ordinances.

How the gas rule ended

Ordinance 20-05, adopted on 24 March 2020, required new low-rise homes to be all-electric, with free-standing ADUs of 400 sq ft or less exempt, and the Energy Commission approved it on 10 June 2020. The 2022 version, Ordinance 22-11, prohibited gas piping in new residential buildings outright. After the Ninth Circuit's ruling on Berkeley's gas ban on 2 January 2024, city staff stopped enforcing that prohibition and told the Council Sustainability Committee so on 11 March 2024. A furnace or water heater on gas is allowed in a new Hayward house again; whether the design complies is something the performance calculation decides.

Hayward addresses that are county land

By Census 2020 land area, less than half of 94541 lies inside the city. The rest is Fairview, Cherryland, San Lorenzo and Ashland, unincorporated communities whose building permits come from the Alameda County Public Works Agency rather than City Hall. About 70 percent of 94542 is city, with Fairview and unincorporated hill land making up the rest. Castro Valley and San Lorenzo are zone 3 as well, so the model is the same on either side of the line; the permit office is not.

Hazard maps for the city and Fairview

Ordinance 25-06, adopted on 3 June 2025, takes the State Fire Marshal's Local Responsibility Area map without enlarging any zone. Hayward Fire's area covers both the city and the Fairview Fire Protection District. On a High or Very High parcel, new work follows the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, and the windows chosen to satisfy it are the ones the energy report has to carry.

e-Permits and pre-approved ADUs

Permits come from the Building Division of the Development Services Department through Hayward e-Permits, in use since 5 December 2022; staff check a submittal for completeness within five business days. Designers can now have detached ADU plans pre-approved under AB 1332 and listed in the city's ADU plans gallery, and the plan set they submit has to include a Title 24 energy report.

Common Title 24 Questions in Hayward

Hayward projects fall in California climate zone 3. The zone drives the envelope and equipment requirements a report has to meet, and a single city can span more than one, so it is confirmed per address.

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Title 24 in Alameda County