(SACRAMENTO) – On August 11-12, 2026, NAIOP SoCal delegates pounded the pavement to support the commercial real estate industry during two days of jam-packed meetings with state legislators in Sacramento.
Our Members advocated on policies supporting the streamlining of permits and plan checks for nonresidential projects, safeguarding advanced manufacturing jobs across California, and ensuring that rulemaking on the reduction of air emissions remains under the authority of accountable public agencies. Our advocacy focused on three bills:
1) SB 1075 (Senator Eloise Reyes) – Priority OPPOSE bill for NAIOP SoCal – Expansion of California’s AB 617 Community Air Protection Framework. This bill has been defeated!
- SB 1075 would have granted regulatory power to non-elected advocates, causing severe confusion and disruption to commercial and industrial investment, as well as community-serving development projects, such as housing, hospitals, and grocery stores.
- Functions more like underground regulation with substantive policy developed by unaccountable community organizations.
- Usurps transparent rulemaking by responsible public agencies, circumvents clear legal standards, and blocks meaningful stakeholder participation.
NAIOP SoCal, working in collaboration with the Supply Chain Federation, defeated SB 1075. The bill was held on the suspense file in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 13 and is dead for the year. Kudos to NAIOP SoCal Senior Government Relations Advisor, Adam Regele, for spearheading our organization’s efforts over the past four months to educate lawmakers and mobilize NAIOP SoCal Members to oppose this bill.
2) SB 954 (Senator Catherine Blakespear) – OPPOSED by NAIOP SoCal – California Environmental Quality Act: Advanced Manufacturing Facilities.
- Unwinds the advanced manufacturing CEQA reforms adopted in 2026 through SB 131.
- Makes it harder for manufacturers to establish or expand enterprises in California, and to remain in the state.
- Makes CEQA even worse by interjecting new prevailing wage labor standards into an environmental law.
3) AB 2418 (Asm. Mark Gonzalez), cosponsored by NAIOP SoCal – California Nonresidential Private Permitting Review Act.
- Establishes clear timelines, accountability, and a responsible backstop when local agencies are unable to complete plan checks on qualifying, nonresidential tenant improvement projects in a timely manner.
- Helps make permitting more predictable and transparent, and helps small businesses avoid delay costs and lost time.
- Pending a vote on the State Senate Floor.
Thanks to NAIOP SoCal’s Sacramento lobbyist, delegates met with over two dozen state legislators and staff of the following offices:
- Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, and Assemblymembers Juan Carrillo, Damon Connolly, Laurie Davies, Sade Elhawary, Stan Ellis, Anamarie Avila Farias, Jesse Gabriel, Mike Gipson, Mark Gonzalez, John Harabedian, Josh Hoover, Tina McKinnor, Sharon Quirk-Silva, Blanca Rubio, Kate Sanchez, Jose Luis Solache, Tri Ta, Avelino Valencia, Lori Wilson and Rick Zbur.
- Senators Catherine Blakespear, Steven Choi, Mike McGuire, Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, Tony Strickland and Tom Umberg.
Our advocacy is working. We helped defeat SB 1075, which is a significant achievement. While SB 954 passed Assembly Appropriations on 8/13, the CA Department of Finance, which serves as the Governor’s chief fiscal policy advisor, issued an analysis on the same day opposing the bill due to “significant additional direct General Fund costs and indirect cost pressures not considered in the 2026 Budget.”
NAIOP SoCal will continue leading the way to stop SB 954 and get AB 2418 to the Governor’s desk. |
