Orange, CA Building Safety: Green Building Code (2026)

17 of the Orange Municipal Code adopts the California Green Building Standards Code by reference. 015. First, Section 202 gains a new definition of 'Sustainability' as consideration of present development and construction impacts on the community, the economy, and the environment without compromising the needs of the future. 1 is rewritten to require that automatic irrigation controllers installed on new landscaping at the time of final inspection be either weather-based or soil moisture-based models that automatically adjust watering as conditions change. Weather-based controllers lacking an integral rain sensor or rainfall-tracking communication system must add a separate wired or wireless rain sensor connected to the controller; soil moisture-based controllers are exempt from that add-on because they already read ground conditions directly.

The Building and Safety Division enforces these standards during plan check and at final inspection before a certificate of occupancy issues. Because CALGREEN compliance is tied to the same construction-permit process as the California Building and Residential Codes, a project that fails to meet the irrigation-controller standard can be held up at final inspection until the fix is made. Ordinance 16-25, adopted November 12, 2025, most recently updated the chapter to the 2025 edition.