2026 Legislative Session: Key Developments in Housing, Land Use, and Transportation Policy Area

Throughout the 2026 Legislative Session, CSAC has kept you informed about key legislative developments. With Governor Newsom’s final actions now complete, CSAC has been publishing a series of articles highlighting new laws and vetoed bills in each policy area. This week brings our final one: the Housing, Land Use, and Transportation policy area. 

For additional information, please contact Mark Neuburger. 

Development and Building Issues  

AB 1621 (Wilson) (Chapter 780, Statutes of 2026)
Post-entitlement phase permits: Housing Accountability Act. This bill reduces the local review timelines for post-entitlement and building permit applications, limits repeated plan checks, shortens appeal deadlines, and makes failures to follow these rules a violation of the Housing Accountability Act. Specifically, it would allow a total of two plan check and specification reviews for a building permit application, require tolling only when another independent public agency must review the application, and shorten appeal decision deadlines to 30 business days for projects of 25 units or fewer and 45 business days for larger projects. It also permits applicants to seek a writ of mandate if an appeal is denied or not decided on time. Read CSAC’s opposition and request for veto letter on this bill here. 

AB 1738 (Carrillo) (Chapter 271, Statutes of 2026)
State Housing Law: remote inspections. This bill requires cities and counties that meet specific population minimums to offer remote inspections for certain building-permit work in one- and two-family homes, while allowing local agencies to set procedures and apply existing immunities. Additionally, the bill allows building officials to deny remote inspections to applicants for willful misrepresentation for a specified period of time. The bill would require most California cities and counties to offer remote inspections for certain building-permit work in one- and two-family homes, while allowing local agencies to set procedures and apply existing immunities. The bill is set to take effect on January 1, 2028. 

AB 1693 (Zbur) (Chapter 827, Statutes of 2026)
Accelerated retailer building plan approval: tenant improvements. This bill creates a streamlined local permit process for retailer tenant improvements, similar to the existing process for restaurants, by allowing qualified architects or engineers to certify compliance and requiring shorter local review deadlines. Specifically, this measure requires counties to make permit decisions within 20 business days, limits review of resubmitted plans to previously identified deficiencies, and allow audits and additional local qualifications. The bill also imposes liability and disciplinary consequences for false certifications and exempts eligible projects from CEQA. 

AB 2418 (González, Mark) (Chapter 828, Statutes of 2026)
Local building permits: nonresidential private permitting review. This bill revises the nonresidential building permit process to require local governments to allow private plan-checking, require estimated review timelines, shorten “excessive delay” to 30 business days, and add related applicant, local agency, and liability rules. Specifically, it allows applicants to use private professional providers when delays occur or no public reviewer is available, requires cities and counties to post nonresidential permit fee schedules, mandates timely inspections for certain new nonresidential projects, and grants public entity immunity while requiring applicant indemnification and other compliance measures. 

SB 299 (Cabaldon) (Chapter 413, Statutes of 2026)
California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: day care center: zoning. This bill exempts day care centers which meet certain criteria and are located in a residential area from CEQA review requirements. Read CSAC’s support and request for signature letter for this bill here. 

SB 716 (Durazo) (Chapter 494, Statutes of 2026)
Ordinances: penalties for violation: nonresidential structures. This bill allows counties to set fines, penalties, and forfeitures for ordinance violations, and establish higher fines for certain local ordinance violations involving large nonresidential structures that threaten health and safety. For these specific types of violations, the bill sets maximum fines of $1,000 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second violation within five years, and $5,000 for later violations within five years. It also authorizes punishment by fine, imprisonment, or both, and includes special findings for Los Angeles County. Read CSAC’s support and request for signature letter for this bill here. 

SB 1272 (Menjivar) (Vetoed)
Local ordinances: administrative fines or penalties. This bill would have required county and city building officials to give at least six months to correct certain nonimmediate building, plumbing, electrical, or similar zoning violations on qualifying owner-occupied residential properties before imposing administrative fines or penalties. Specifically, it would have applied when the property has four or fewer units and the current owner files a sworn affidavit stating the owner did not cause the violation and did not know of it when acquiring the property. The bill would have allowed a six-month extension for a good faith effort to fix the problem and would have allowed for further extensions at the agency’s discretion. Read CSAC’s opposition and request for veto letter for this bill here. 

General Plans 

AB 1457 (Bryan) Chapter 517, Statutes of 2026)
General plan: environmental justice element: disadvantaged communities. This bill revises existing requirements by requiring counties and cities to ‘meaningfully’ involve disadvantaged communities in developing and implementing environmental justice elements or related goals in general plans. Additionally, the bill changes the deadline for reviewing or adopting those provisions. We recommend counties that are in the process of updating the Environmental Justice elements and other impacted elements to review this bill to assess its impact on current General Plan update efforts. 

(AB 1573 Bryan) (Chapter 524, Statutes of 2026)
Land use: housing elements: target population. This bill allows counties to include victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in the “target population” for housing element requirements under the Planning and Zoning Law. It amends the definition used in housing element requirements, which already covers certain low-income individuals with disabilities and people eligible for specified developmental disability services, so that these individuals may also be counted as part of the population addressed by a city or county’s housing plan. 

Housing & Regional Housing Needs Allocation 

AB 179 (Committee on Budget) (Chapter 68, Statutes of 2026)
Housing. This bill includes provisions which require counties to waive specific non-utility impact fees as a condition of receiving state affordable housing grants if they are a lead applicant for a housing project that provides affordable multifamily rental or housing ownership programs. If counties choose not to waive these fees, the awarding state entity is authorized to reduce the grant award by the amount of development impact fees that the county was required to waive pursuant to this statute. We note this statutory requirement applies for state affordable housing opportunities released after July 1, 2027. Further, the language does not apply to impact fees assessed by a variety of other local governments, including schools and special districts. We strongly urge counties that are currently or are considering being lead applicants for state affordable housing grants to review this statutory language to evaluate any potential impact it could have on your county’s ability to provide the infrastructure that residents of affordable housing developments need to enjoy the full range of benefits development impact fees provide. Read CSAC’s opposition letter for this bill here. 

AB 2320 (Ta) (Chapter 935, Statutes of 2026)
Multifamily Housing Program: Homekey: adaptive reuse. Existing law places requirements on how the funds awarded for the Homekey program are spent. For background, this program provides housing assistance for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including funds for acquiring or rehabilitating sites such as motels and hotels. This bill would, for Homekey awards made on or after July 1, 2026, require the Housing and Community Development Department to consider allowing applicants to use funds for adaptive reuse projects when the work involves substantial rehabilitation, reconstruction, or demolition of an existing structure. Read CSAC’s support and request for signature letter for this bill here. 

AB 2296 (Papan) (Chapter 798, Statutes of 2026)
Planning and zoning: housing element: regional housing needs allocation. The bill extends and adjusts several housing element and regional housing needs deadlines, updates related planning timelines for local governments and regional agencies, and applies these changes statewide. Specifically, it lengthens the time for forming subregional entities and setting housing need shares, moves the deadlines for developing allocation methodologies and draft plans, revises when certain housing elements are due, and requires earlier notice of regional transportation plan adoption dates.  

SB 457 (Becker) (Chapter 802, Statutes of 2026)
Housing element compliance: in-kind services: realistic capacity formula. This bill requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop tools for calculating the realistic housing capacity of sites in local housing elements, allow local governments to rely on those tools, and exempt their use from judicial review except in specified cases. Additionally, it requires housing inventories to provide the number of units allowed on each site before and after rezoning. Finally, it would define “in-kind services” for the existing housing element program that allows counties to count certain committed assistance toward housing requirements. 

Public Works 

AB 1198 (Haney) (Chapter 513, Statutes of 2026)
Public works: prevailing wages. This bill requires certain new prevailing wage determinations issued after a public works contract is awarded to apply during the life of the contract. This bill creates new and unpredictable costs if or public works contracts after projects have already been bid, budgeted, and awarded. Specifically, beginning July 1, 2027, when the Director of Industrial Relations updates a wage within the specified period, the wage increase would apply to public works contracts awarded or noticed after that date if the contract is worth at least $35 million. Contractors, awarding bodies, or certain representatives could file a verified petition within 20 days to review the rate, and the director would then investigate or hold a hearing and issue a final determination within 20 days, with the decision taking effect 10 days after issuance. Certain housing projects would be exempt. Read CSAC’s opposition and request for veto letter for this bill here. 

AB 1933 (Hoover) (Chapter 277, Statutes of 2026)
Land surveyors: records of survey. This bill revises procedures county surveyors use for records of survey and corner records by shifting review and filing responsibilities to licensed surveyors or civil engineers. The bill also expands county surveyor examination duties for monument identification requirements. Specifically, it requires a county surveyor to return noncompliant records of survey to the licensed land surveyor or civil engineer who submitted them, removes county engineer filing and review options for corner records, and adds compliance checks for monument marking and tagging.  

SB 935 (Choi) (Chapter 102, Statutes of 2026)
Local agency design-build projects: authorization. The bill would remove the existing sunset date for local agencies’ authority to use design-build contracts for certain public works projects, making that authority permanent. Read CSAC’s support and request for signature letter for this bill here. 

Transportation 

AB 1599 (Ahrens) (Chapter 269, Statutes of 2026)
California Transit Stop Registry: transit datasets. This bill requires the Department of Transportation to create a statewide California Transit Stop Registry by June 1, 2027, and would require transit operators to align their stop data with the registry and report key stop features by January 1, 2028. The registry would centralize standardized information on transit stops, including names, locations, seating, shelter, and unique identifiers. 

AB 2015 (Wicks) (Chapter 207, Statutes of 2026)
Third-party navigation applications: study and report. Requires the Department of Transportation to conduct a pilot study on how third-party navigation applications affect state highways and local roads. The study will examine impacts on congestion, route displacement, local infrastructure, safety, and emergency response. Based on the pilot study results, the department will be required to provide a report that includes policy recommendations to the Legislature by January 1, 2029.  

AB 2059 (Wilson) (Chapter 576, Statutes of 2026)
Transportation impacts: vehicle miles traveled: mitigation. This bill requires Caltrans, by December 31, 2030, to develop and publish guidance on vehicle-miles-traveled mitigation measures for transportation projects in nonmetropolitan counties and add that guidance to CEQA transportation analysis materials. Most importantly, this measure creates a presumption that a transportation project with a notice of preparation issued on or before December 31, 2031 has less than significant transportation impacts if at least 70 percent of the project is located in one or more nonmetropolitan counties.  

AB 2168 (Wicks) (Chapter 210, Statutes of 2026)
Active Transportation Program: guidelines. This bill, beginning January 2028, revises the guidelines for the Active Transportation Program to expand eligible project types, modify funding incentives, and add new consultation and penalty requirements. The expanded project types to include transit facilities that improve transit access, improve biking and walking access to school bus stops, expand transit access in underserved or rural areas, or promote larger network-level improvements through outside funding incentives. Finally, the bill allows penalties to be assessed for untimely use of prior funds and requires consultation with a transit agency for projects adjacent to certain bus or paratransit routes. 

SB 661 (Hurtado) (Vetoed)
Airports: financial assistance. This bill sought to redirect a portion of jet fuel sales and use tax revenues into the Aeronautics Account and require those funds to be distributed among airports and aviation-related programs according to a set formula. Additionally, it would have required annual transfers from the Retail Sales Tax Fund, reporting of jet fuel flowage by airports, and allocation of the money mainly to airports based on fuel use, with smaller shares for general aviation, aviation education, and certain grant programs. Notably, the bill would have redirected sales tax revenues from the Local Public Safety Fund and the Local Revenue Fund, which would have reduced county funding for public safety and health and human services programs. 

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Tax Credit Budget Trailer Bill Proposal (Failed)
The legislature didn’t approve of the Governor’s proposal to create a SAF tax credit that would have diverted funding away from county road maintenance revenues. For background, in the January budget proposal the Administration proposed a new tax credit against diesel excise tax liability to incentivize the production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). This proposal would have diverted funding away from the Local Streets & Roads (LSR) program that counties receive funding from, reducing revenues that counties rely on to maintain local streets, roads, and infrastructure.  CSAC is opposed to this tax credit throughout the budget season as it would have lead to less funding for county streets, roads, and bridges. Read CSAC’s opposition letter for this proposal here.