San Jose Fire Damage Rules: The Debris and the Ground

What Regulation 11, Rule 2 Requires

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District regulates the demolition and renovation of buildings that may contain asbestos across nine Bay Area counties, this one among them.

Notification must be given to the Air District at least ten working days before every demolition, regardless of asbestos content and regardless of the age or size of the building. It is also required before any renovation disturbing 100 square feet, 100 linear feet or 35 cubic feet or more of regulated asbestos-containing material.

Demolition for these purposes means the wrecking or taking out of a load-supporting structural member, or a portion of one. The requirement applies to contractors, homeowners and any other entity alike.

Is This a Building Permit?

No, and conflating the two is a common error. It is a separate air quality notification, made to a regional district rather than to your city, and it runs on its own timetable alongside whatever the city requires. Having one does not satisfy the other in either direction.

The Survey Comes First

Section 11-2-303.8 provides that, except for ordered demolitions, prior to the commencement of any demolition or renovation the owner or operator shall thoroughly survey the affected structure or portion of it for the presence of asbestos-containing material, including Category I and Category II nonfriable material.

The survey must be performed by a person certified by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health who has taken and passed an EPA-approved course. It must be made available on request prior to the commencement of any removal or demolition.

For residential buildings of four or fewer dwelling units, the owner or operator may sample and test suspected asbestos-containing materials themselves rather than engage a certified consultant, provided appropriate safety measures are taken.

What Counts as Suspect Material?

Broadly, anything that is not wood, metal, glass, rubber or a combination of those. In practice that takes in acoustic ceilings, taping mud and joint compound on sheetrock, plaster, flooring and mastic, heating ducts, stucco, flue pipes, pipe lagging and roofing. On housing of the era common across this valley the list covers a great deal of the building.

The Consequence of Not Testing

This is the provision that decides the money, and the Air District states it plainly: if you do not test the fire-damaged building, you are required to treat all of the debris as Regulated Asbestos Containing Material and dispose of it accordingly.

So the choice is not between testing and not testing. It is between a modest, known testing cost and a classification applied to the entire waste stream from a burned house.

We publish no estimates of disposal costs, testing costs or asbestos content for any property. Those depend on the building and on current rates, and a certified consultant or a demolition contractor working in this district will quote both for you.

Fees, Job Numbers and Dates

Notifications are submitted with the applicable fee and a job number is issued on approval, together with an acknowledgement letter. Job numbers are not issued until the fee is received.

For residential buildings of four or fewer dwelling units, notice of 72 hours rather than ten working days is available on payment of an additional fee, excluding emergencies. A portion of the fee is non-refundable for notification processing where a job is cancelled.

The start and end dates specified in the job number are confirmed dates rather than an estimated working window. Failure to revise them by the end of the specified start date may result in a violation, and revisions are made through the district's online system.

What Happens If the Survey Is Thin?

A missing or inadequate survey is among the fastest routes to a stop-work order in the middle of a demolition, which is considerably more disruptive than the survey would have been. The notification timeline does not bend for scheduling conflicts, contractor availability or a permit office running behind.

The Second Body of Rule: The Ground

The Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act, at Public Resources Code section 2621 and following, requires that before approving a project within a mapped earthquake fault zone, a city or county require the preparation of a geologic report.

That report is issued by a geologist registered in California, must define and delineate any hazard of surface fault rupture, and must be prepared in accordance with the Act. No structure to be used for human occupancy may be constructed over or within fifty feet of the trace of a known active fault shown on the maps.

When Does a Fire Repair Become a Project?

The Act exempts alterations or additions to a structure where the value does not exceed fifty per cent of the value of the structure, and exempts development in existence before 4 May 1975 except where alterations or additions exceed that same threshold. The test is the value of the work rather than the intention behind it, which is why a substantial fire repair can cross it without anyone planning new construction.

What Changed In 2023

Assembly Bill 1046 was approved by the Governor on 13 October 2023, amending sections 2621.6, 2621.7 and 2621.8 of the Public Resources Code and recasting the exemptions.

As recast, an alteration to a structure for human occupancy is exempt where the value does not exceed fifty per cent of the appraised value of the structure and, where the alteration results in a change in use or occupancy, the change does not authorise a greater human occupant load and is less hazardous on life and fire risk than the existing authorised use.

The amendments also address identification of sites within fifty feet of an identified fault, and require proof that the property owner has been notified that the granting of an exemption is not a guarantee that a geologic hazard does not exist.

Waivers and the Companion Act

A geologic report may be waived where the city or county geologist determines that no undue hazard from surface fault rupture exists and the waiver is approved by the State Geologist. Once a report has been approved or a waiver granted, subsequent reports are generally not required unless new geologic data warrants further investigation.

Running alongside Alquist-Priolo, the Seismic Hazards Mapping Act addresses hazards beyond surface rupture, particularly ground failure from liquefaction and earthquake-triggered landslides. Both sets of zones appear on the natural hazard disclosure statement given to a buyer under Civil Code section 1103.2, which is why an owner's own purchase file frequently answers the question.

Is There a Precedent for Fire and This Act Meeting?

There is, and it is instructive. Among the enumerated exemption categories the Legislature has recognised are structures damaged by the 1991 Berkeley-Oakland Hills fire that obtained state waivers. Fire damage and this Act have intersected before, and the route through it was a waiver rather than an assumption that the Act did not apply.

Your Options, Compared

Repair below the threshold. Avoids the geologic requirement where the parcel is in a mapped zone, and avoids demolition notification entirely if no load-supporting member comes out.

Repair above it. Engages the Act where the parcel is mapped, and a waiver may be available.

Demolish and rebuild. Engages the Air District requirements on the way down and the seismic requirements on the way back up.

Sell. Transfers both to a buyer, and what you receive depends heavily on whether they have priced testing or assumed it away.

Across San Jose and the County

Hazard mapping and building age vary sharply. The older central neighbourhoods are covered under downtown and central San Jose and Willow Glen and the Rose Garden, the east side under east San Jose, and the bay margin under north San Jose, Berryessa and Alviso. Further pages deal with south San Jose and the Almaden foothills and the surrounding Santa Clara County cities.

The Air District requirements reach every one of them identically. The permitting does not: Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Monte Sereno and the city of Santa Clara each run their own building department, alongside the county for unincorporated parcels.

Each also holds its own copy of the State Geologist's mapping and administers the geologic report requirement for parcels within it. A contractor who files constantly in one of them may never have filed in the next, which is a fair question to put to anyone quoting.

The full index is on our service area index.

Rules Questions

Do I Need a Notification If I Am Only Repairing?

Notification is required for demolition of a load-supporting member and for renovations disturbing regulated material above the thresholds. A repair that does neither may fall outside it, and the survey requirement still bears on renovation work.

Can I Use the 72-Hour Option?

It is available for residential buildings of four or fewer dwelling units on payment of an additional fee, excluding emergencies.

How Do I Find out If I Am in a Mapped Zone?

The State Geologist's maps are held by the city, and both fault and seismic hazard zones appear on the natural hazard disclosure given when a property is sold. Your purchase file may already have it.

Primary Sources

BAAQMD Regulation 11, Rule 2 — asbestos demolition, renovation and manufacturing
BAAQMD section 11-2-303.8 and the district's asbestos frequently asked questions
Public Resources Code sections 2621 to 2630 — Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act
Assembly Bill 1046 (2023), amending Public Resources Code sections 2621.6, 2621.7 and 2621.8
Seismic Hazards Mapping Act and Civil Code section 1103.2 — natural hazard disclosure