Title 24 Reports in Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa is climate zone 2 in all 6 of its street ZIP codes. In 2019 the city also adopted an energy rule of its own — new low-rise homes had to be all-electric — and in May 2024 it stopped enforcing it.
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An all-electric rule, adopted and then paused
The City Council adopted Ordinance ORD-2019-019 on 19 November 2019. New low-rise homes had to heat, cook and dry clothes on electricity alone, with no gas or propane plumbing; an attached ADU added to an existing house was exempt. A city can only enforce energy standards stricter than the state's once the Energy Commission accepts them, and the Commission approved this one on 20 February 2020.
On 30 May 2024 the city suspended enforcement, citing the Ninth Circuit's decision against Berkeley's ban on gas piping. The Commission's list of local ordinances approved against the 2025 Energy Code carries no Santa Rosa entry, so an application made today is assessed against the statewide code as published.
What a Santa Rosa house is measured against now
The 2025 Energy Code governs every permit application submitted on or after 1 January 2026. A mixed-fuel design is no longer refused at the counter, but fuel still shows up in the numbers: the performance method compares the proposed house with a standard design for zone 2, so a gas furnace or water heater is weighed in the result rather than ruled out. A plan drawn during the all-electric years has to be re-run under the current code before it goes in.
Zone 2 stops on the Russian River
Guerneville (95446) is zone 2, like Santa Rosa, and so are Forestville and Sebastopol. Monte Rio (95462), a short way downstream, is zone 1 — as are Occidental, Jenner and Bodega Bay. Each zone has its own weather file in the compliance software, so a design carried from a Santa Rosa lot to a river or coast lot is being tested against a climate it was never modelled for.
Rebuilding inside the interface
The 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed roughly 3,000 residential units in Santa Rosa, including homes in Coffey Park and Fountaingrove. New construction inside the city's Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Area has to meet the state's wildfire construction rules, which sat in Chapter 7A of the Building Code until 1 January 2026 and now form the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code, Part 7 of Title 24. CAL FIRE's 2025 hazard maps added High zones in the city and redrew the Very High ones, and the city has been revising its interface map in response.
Where that touches the energy report is the glazing. Tempered or fire-rated units chosen for the interface rules have their own U-factor and solar heat gain figures, and the report has to model those exact products — otherwise the window schedule and the compliance forms describe two different houses.
Submitting through Accela
The Building Division of the Planning and Economic Development Department reviews the plans, which go in through the Accela Citizen Access portal, relaunched in enhanced form on 6 July 2026. Additions, ADU conversions, window replacements and solar are all uploaded for electronic review, the energy compliance documents included.
Common Title 24 Questions in Santa Rosa
- Is all of Santa Rosa in climate zone 2?
- Is a Russian River project in zone 1 or zone 2?
- Does the city or Sonoma County review my Santa Rosa permit?
- Do Santa Rosa window replacements need Title 24?
- Does a Santa Rosa ADU conversion need an energy report?
- What does Santa Rosa plan check look for in the energy forms?
- Do Santa Rosa tenant improvements need the nonresidential forms?
Santa Rosa projects fall in California climate zone 2. 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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