Yeah, it's all about the way occupancy is calculated. 20 years ago, jurisdictions had their choice for how to calculate number of plumbing fixtures, whether in Chapter 29 of the building code or in Chapter 4 of the plumbing code. That went away in 2006 and architects have been using the plumbing code since then.
However, six years ago, the state, in their infinite wisdom, implemented a code update that now requires the occupant loads used for exiting (Chapter 10) to be used to determine the number of fixtures. That's all fine and good, but exiting occupant loads are significantly higher than those in the plumbing code, mainly due to the idea that most people aren't using the facilities all at one time. The state said that's a bad idea and there should be enough toilets for everyone, all the time!
Stupid, and completely frustrating in that it essentially declared most facilities woefully inadequate in terms of number of fixtures (schools and gyms in particular).
There seems to be a provision in there that allows the local building official to still allow using the smaller plumbing code numbers, but it seems to be rarely implemented. I'm not sure at all about LADBS current standard as I have no projects in the City at the moment.
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Originally Posted by SoCalKid
It means that the number of bathrooms required in "gathering areas" (which includes restaurants, entertainment spaces, podium decks, etc.) has increased. Why did they do this? Because the code gets increasingly worse and worse every time it is updated. There's always someone proposing a new rule, and there's never a cost-benefit analysis of that rule. Rules never get rolled back. It's why building costs have skyrocketed at a rate significantly higher than inflation in the last couple decades. This is a really significant problem.
The good news is that groups like California YIMBY are aware of this and are turning their attention to it. A bill passed last year pausing code updates for residential projects for 6 years. And I suspect we'll see more proposed laws in the next couple of years trying to chip away at some code issues (the single stair movement is one of these efforts). If we really want to see a difference though, there needs to be a full scale review of the code for both residential and commercial and a serious effort to make wholesale changes.
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