Best Practices for Project Management, Design, and Construction of ...

• California Air Quality Management Districts for Construction and Emergency Generator
Operations
The California Environmental Quality Act
The local jurisdiction is typically the lead agency in the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) process. The Registered Design Professional is responsible for ensuring that the project
conforms to the requirements of CEQA. Minor renovations normally do not trigger CEQA
compliance, but a major addition or remodel might. New buildings will require CEQA compliance,
even if it is declared not to have an impact to the environment (a Negative Declaration). Specific
requirements and regulations for CEQA can be found at http://ceres.ca.gov .
The local jurisdiction is typically the lead agency in the CEQA process. OSHPD relies on the
Registered Design Professional to coordinate the local requirements with the project, in particular,
any zoning and/or unique building code requirements imposed by a local jurisdiction need to be
coordinated with the local agency. With a new building project especially, the site work will fall
under the jurisdiction of the local agency. However, OSHPD will claim jurisdiction over the site fire
water line as well as other jointly reviewed features and will ensure that there is a code-compliant
path of travel to the public way at the property line and compliance with accessible parking
requirements.
3.2 General Best Practices for the Project Drawings
Quality in Documentation
Many architectural firms have documentation standards that are the mainstay of their practice,
developed over many years of successful projects and improved upon as codes and technology
have evolved. The guidelines offered in this section are not meant to suggest a better way of
performing architectural documentation, but merely offer suggestions to individuals and firms that
do not have the benefit of developing standards that many larger firms must do to ensure quality
documents.
The “customers” for the architectural documents are large and varied—clients, engineers and
consultants, contractors and vendors, as well as building officials. Although some are
knowledgeable on how to read and use construction documents, there are still those who will be
unfamiliar with specific graphic conventions, or common ways that are unique to an individual
practice. The best practice is to be sure the documents are as user friendly as possible.
For every project, the goal is to prepare a set of documents that appears to have been prepared
by a single entity. It is important that all disciplines (and outside consultants) adhere to the same
set of basic graphic standards that guide the preparation of the architectural documents.
Organizations like the AIA, CSI and National Institute of Building Sciences work jointly to create
national standards for consistent documentation and data organization, to assist in
communication and coordination across the design and construction industry. (See
http://www.nationalcadstandard.org for more information.)
(OSHPD Best Practices) Page 12 DRAFT FINAL, Sept. 2011