That's odd, I mean my apartment has a "vent hood" but it just feeds into a sponge into a wall with no ventilation leading outside. These are the types of hoods I've only seen in my life, only in professional kitchens have I seen true ventilation and even then some kitchens are moving to induction sense it's a much safer work environment and speeds up cooking but even then you still need ventilation.
I went ahead and looked it up. It seems like it is required in CA. It also seems NY is similar but also allows ductless. I didn't read up on it that much though.