APA California Legislative Update: September 2026

After several long days and nights, the Legislature adjourned the 2026 Legislative Session on September 1, marking the official end of the two-year legislative session. The Legislature took action on a number of major policy and budget issues. These legislative actions include many of importance to the planning profession that APA California tracked and, in many cases, actively worked on throughout the session.

In addition to hundreds of policy bills already moving through the legislative process, several significant end-of-session agreements were put into print during the final week, including measures related to Cap-and-Invest funding, Proposition 4 climate bond funding, and wildfire liability policy reform.

One major issue that ultimately remains unresolved is the state’s approach to wildfire liability and the long-term solvency of the Wildfire Fund. After ongoing conversations, a substantially narrowed compromise was ultimately proposed in SB 492 (Becker and Petrie-Norris); however, the Legislature didn’t end up moving the bill forward, instead indicating they will continue working on the issue in 2027. Governor Newsom has also raised the possibility of calling a special session to address wildfire liability before the new session begins. Either way, the issue remains a challenging one to address.

The Governor now has until September 30 to take action on bills that made it to his desk. We will post a list of the Governor’s actions after that deadline has passed, but for now the full list of nearly 300 bills of interest to planners is online. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have questions or thoughts on a particular bill or issue.

There are many high-profile bills that passed in the final days of the legislative session; however, we want to bring your attention to one bill that made it to the Governor and should be reviewed if you are working on implementation of SB 1000 (Leyva, 2016):

Planners should be aware of AB 1457 (Bryan), which will make significant changes to the requirements for environmental justice (EJ) elements and policies in general plans, if signed by the Governor.

What the bill does: AB 1457 was introduced late in the session and revises the requirements established by SB 1000 (Leyva, 2016), which requires cities and counties with disadvantaged communities to address environmental justice in their general plans. Among other changes, AB 1457 establishes new deadlines and adds more specific requirements related to community engagement.

APA California’s amendments: APA California worked with the author’s office and sponsors to address implementation concerns, particularly for jurisdictions that had already complied with SB 1000 or were well underway with general plan updates under existing law. Final amendments exempt jurisdictions that have already completed their SB 1000 work and provide an additional six-months for those already in process before new requirements would kick in. While APA California had sought a longer transition period to provide jurisdictions sufficient time to complete their ongoing general plan processes, it’s important to know the introduced version of the bill provided no time to complete existing work.

What planners should pay attention to: If AB 1457 is signed, the impact will depend largely on where a jurisdiction is in its SB 1000 process:

• Already completed: Jurisdictions that have complied with SB 1000 by January 1, 2027, will not need to update their general plan solely to comply with the new AB 1457 requirements.
• Currently in process: Jurisdictions that are already preparing or updating an EJ element or related policies should pay close attention to their adoption schedule. They will have until June 30, 2027, to complete their work under the existing SB 1000 requirements.
• New requirements: Jurisdictions that do not complete their existing process by June 30, 2027, or those that have yet to start will need to complete an update to the general plan pursuant to SB 1000 with the added requirements under AB 1457 by June 30, 2031.

IMPORTANT: The bill has not yet been acted on by the Governor. APA California will continue to monitor the bill through the Governor’s September 30 signing deadline. We have also requested that, if the bill is signed, the Office of the Attorney General update its existing SB 1000 guidance to assist jurisdictions in understanding and implementing the new requirements as soon as possible.

Finally, the end-of-session budget package includes new funding that may be of interest to planners. AB 113 (Budget Act of 2026) provides grant funding for local governments to update general plans, zoning, and other planning documents to be consistent, to the extent feasible, with adopted Community Emissions Reduction Programs (CERPs).

This is particularly notable following SB 1075 (Reyes), which earlier this year proposed new requirements related to alignment between local general plans and CARB’s Community Air Protection Program (CERPs) but did not move forward. APA California opposed the introduced version of the bill due to its mandate to require general plan consistency with another plan that planners may not have had any role in and could be infeasible to implement.

However, this new funding for alignment is not mandated – it’s optional and, depending on grant criteria, might be more flexible. The new funding is also consistent with APA California’s longstanding advocacy that when the state asks local governments to undertake additional planning work, resources and/or other tools should be provided to help support that work – especially for general plan updates. While this funding opportunity will likely be limited in its applicability, it is an opportunity to support important planning work, nonetheless. APA California will share additional information as grant criteria and funding opportunities become available.

2026 has been yet another busy year for planning-related legislation, and there’s a lot to discuss. For more details, please join us at the APA California Conference in Los Angeles for the extended Legislative Update Session. This year we will be offering two sessions, providing more time to dive into legislation related to housing, land use, and CEQA, among many other topics the Legislature focused on this year. We hope to see you there.

If you’re interested in receiving updates on legislative and regulatory issues from the Chapter’s Policy and Legislation Team, please join here. Have questions on policy and legislation-related issues, including bills and regulations? APA California members are welcome to reach out to the VP for Policy and Legislation at [email protected].