California State, County Clarifications to Stay-at-Home Orders Raise More Questions

Engineering News-Record (March 24, 2020) Despite a statewide stay-at-home-order that deems construction as “essential” work, confusion continues across California as contractors, owners and construction workers look for government guidance on how to interpret vague and varying language from the state and its 58 counties and 480 cities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March 19 stay-at-home order mandates that all California residents stay home, except for persons working on 16 essential critical infrastructure types, as identified by the federal government, including communications, chemicals, dams, energy, transportation systems and water, among others.

The California Dept. of Public Health clarified the state order by designating that exemptions apply to “workers who support the operation, inspection and maintenance of essential public works facilities and operations, including bridges, water and sewer main breaks,” for instance. Also exempted is the “construction of critical or strategic infrastructure,” but neither that agency nor the governor’s office would clarify that term further.

“It could be clearer,” says Mark Hartney, partner at Allen Matkins, a California-based law firm specializing in real estate. Hartney noted the order’s parenthetical addition of “including housing” to the initial order creates uncertainty. Hartney points to local orders such as those from Los Angeles and Santa Monica, both of which have exempted commercial construction from stay-at-home orders.  “We know that by law, and expressly in these orders, that a local jurisdiction can be more restrictive but not less restrictive than the state,” says Hartney. Read More (subscription required)