Six Bay Area Counties, and the City of Berkeley, Extend and Tighten “Shelter in Place” Orders
Corona (beer) all day, every day wouldn’t be a bad way to go. But Coronavirus all day, every day is a bit much. Here’s the latest:
Six Bay Area Counties Extend and Tighten “Shelter in Place” Orders
On March 31, 2020, the six Bay Area counties, and the City of Berkeley, which had earlier issued “shelter in place” orders that were set to expire on April 7, 2020, extended and tighten those orders through May 3, 2020. The six Bay Area counties issuing new “shelter in place” orders are: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara.
The new “shelter in place” orders extend the shelter in place restriction from April 7, 2020 to May 3, 2020 and takes effect beginning at 11:59 p.m. on March 31, 2020 and will continue in effect until 11:59 p.m. on May 3, 2020 unless extended, rescinded, superseded or amended.
The new “shelter in place” orders continue the nomenclature of the original “shelter in place” orders and permit “Essential Activities,” “Essential Governmental Functions” and operation of “Essential Businesses.” However, a new category entitled “Essential Travel” has been added. In addition, the definition of what is considered “essential” has been made more restrictive.
The New “Essential Travel” Category
The new “Essential Travel” category permits:
- Travel related to the provision of or access to Essential Activities, Essential Governmental Functions, Essential Businesses, or Minimum Basic Operations.
- Travel to care for any elderly, minors, dependents, or persons with disabilities.
- Travel to or from educational institutions for purposes of receiving materials for distance learning, for receiving meals, and any other related services.
- Travel to return to a place of residence from outside the County.
- Travel required by law enforcement or court order.
- Travel required for non-residents to return to their place of residence outside the County. Individuals are strongly encouraged to verify that their transportation out of the County remains available and functional prior to commencing such travel.
- Travel to manage after-death arrangements and burial.
- Travel to arrange for shelter or avoid homelessness.
- Travel to avoid domestic violence or child abuse.
- Travel for parental custody arrangements.
- Travel to a place to temporarily reside in a residence or other facility to avoid potentially exposing others to COVID-19, such as a hotel or other facility provided by a governmental authority for such purposes.
More Restrictive Orders
The new “shelter in place” orders restrict “essential” activities that were formerly permitted under the original “shelter in place” orders. Those include:
- Use of playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas, and similar recreational areas is now prohibited.
- Use of shared public recreational facilities such as golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, pools, and rock walls is now prohibited.
- Sports requiring people to share a ball or other equipment must now be limited to people in the same household.
- Essential businesses must now develop a social distancing protocol before April 3.
- Most construction is now prohibited.
- Funerals are now limited to no more than 10 people attending.
- Essential businesses now include service providers that enable residential transactions (notaries, title companies, Realtors, etc.); funeral homes and cemeteries; moving companies, rental car companies and rideshare services that specifically enable essential activities.
- Essential businesses that continue to operate facilities must now scale down operations to their essential component only.
This Includes Construction
As discussed earlier, the original “shelter in place” orders permitted public works construction and residential construction including construction of affordable housing and housing for the homeless. The new “shelter in place” orders are more restrictive. Under the new “shelter in place” orders construction activities are limited to the following:
- Projects immediately necessary to the maintenance, operation or repair of Essential Infrastructure;
- Projects associated with Healthcare Operations, including creating or expanding Healthcare Operations, provided that such construction is directly related to the COVID-19 response;
- Affordable housing that is or will be income-restricted, including multi-unit or mixed-use developments containing at least 10% income-restricted units;
- Public works projects if specifically designated as an Essential Governmental Function by the lead governmental agency;
- Shelters and temporary housing, but not including hotels or motels;
- Projects immediately necessary to provide critical non-commercial services to individuals experiencing homelessness, elderly persons, persons who are economically disadvantaged, and persons with special needs;
- Construction necessary to ensure that existing construction sites that must be shut down under this Order are left in a safe and secure manner, but only to the extent necessary to do so; and
- Construction or repair necessary to ensure that residences and buildings containing Essential Businesses are safe, sanitary, or habitable to the extent such construction or repair cannot reasonably be delayed.
Stay safe everyone!
California Construction Law Blog | Nomos LLP 
2 Responses to “Six Bay Area Counties, and the City of Berkeley, Extend and Tighten “Shelter in Place” Orders”
[…] the shelter in place orders, most construction projects in California have been shut down with the exception of construction of healthcare facilities related to responding to the […]
[…] States. With states and local governments issuing “shelter in place” orders, including more restrictive orders in the Bay Area that effectively shutters most construction projects, it couldn’t come at a […]