Department of Transportation: paving materials.

(1) Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation is responsible for the maintenance and improvement of the state highway system. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations regarding the meaning of urban heat island effect (UHIE) . The bill would require the California Environmental Protection Agency to develop a definition for the term UHIE and, upon completion of an UHIE index, develop a standard specification for sustainable or cool pavements. (2) The California Building Standards Law requires any building standard adopted or proposed by a state agency to be submitted to, and approved or adopted by, the California Building Standards Commission prior to codification. This bill would require the commission, in the next triennial adoption process of the California Green Building Standards Code to consider incorporating a standard specification for sustainable or cool pavements that this bill would require the Department of Transportation to develop in the Cool Pavements Handbook as additional strategies for Heat Island Effect: Hardscape Alternatives in the California Green Building Standards Code.