Fresno County, CA Building Safety: Green Building Code (2026)

22 of the Fresno County Code, titled Green Building Standards Code, contains just two operative sections. 010 adopts the 2022 California Green Building Standards Code, commonly called CALGreen, by reference for all construction within the unincorporated county. That adoption folds mandatory measures on construction waste diversion, water conservation fixtures, and building commissioning into every building permit reviewed by the Fresno County Department of Public Works and Planning, Development Services Division. 7, the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO), which sets maximum applied water allowances and plant-factor calculations for new landscaping tied to a building permit.

Both sections were most recently reenacted by Ordinance No. 23-001 on February 28, 2023, which also updated the county's building code chapters to the 2022 edition cycle; earlier amendments trace back to Ordinance No. 11-005 in 2011 when the chapter was first adopted. Because Fresno County incorporates CALGreen and MWELO by reference rather than writing its own numeric green-building standard, a builder pulling a permit in the unincorporated area works from the state code text itself, checked at plan review by county building staff against the adopted 2022 edition. There is no separate county point-count or local exceedance requirement beyond the state baseline in this chapter.