San Clemente, CA Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Adopted with the rest of the 2025 California Building Code by Ordinance No. 1796 on November 4, 2025, Section 15.08.040 rewrites CBC Sections 903.2 and 903.2.8 to set San Clemente's local sprinkler triggers. Section 903.2.8, Group R, requires an automatic sprinkler system, installed to the standard in Section 903.3, throughout all new Group R occupancy buildings, including their attached garages, with no size threshold: any new house or apartment building in a Group R use gets sprinklers. Existing Group R buildings and their garages must add sprinklers when the total floor area grows by 50 percent or more over any two-year period, when 750 square feet or more is added over two years, or when a new story is added regardless of area. An alteration or combined addition-and-alteration equal to 50 percent or more of the existing structure's area over two years also triggers sprinklers if the scope of work exposes the building's framing enough that installing sprinklers is about as complex as it would be in new construction, as determined by the Building or Fire Code Official. Once a Group R building already has sprinklers installed, any addition to it must have sprinklers too, regardless of size.

The broader Section 903.2 sets separate rules for other occupancy types: sprinklers are required throughout all new Groups A, C, I, E, H and L buildings regardless of size, throughout Group B, F, M and S buildings over 1,000 square feet, and throughout Group U-1 buildings over 6,000 square feet. An alteration exceeding 75 percent of an existing building's area within two years, involving structural modifications beyond a seismic upgrade, also triggers full sprinklering, as does any change of use that itself requires sprinklers.