2026 New Laws Legal Alert
Each year, California enacts a number of new laws impacting municipalities throughout the state. New legislation for 2026 includes noteworthy updates to the Brown Act, financial training requirements for public officials, housing and community topics, wildfire mitigation and water infrastructure. These new laws highlight key takeaways and analysis of SB 707, SB 827, SB 634, SB 346, SB 254, AB 671 and SB 598.
Brown Act
Senate Bill 707 represents the most significant update to the Brown Act in decades. The bill’s goal is to increase public participation, improve access for diverse communities, and update the Brown Act for modern technological realities. Some of these changes apply only to “eligible legislative bodies,” while others apply to all legislative bodies.
Effective January 1, 2026, all legislative bodies are now subject to new, expanded teleconference rules that aim to add uniformity to noticing, disclosure, accessibility and public comment requirements. In addition, agencies must now give a copy of the Brown Act to any newly elected or appointed member and the rule banning a majority of legislative body members from using social media to discuss legislative body business now continues indefinitely.
Read BBK’s complete legal alert on SB 707 here.
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Financial Training
Senate Bill 827 will now require certain local agency officials to complete at least two hours of fiscal and financial training every two years. This training will be in addition to the AB 1234 ethics training that has been mandated since 2005. The bill also expands the categories of local agency officials that must complete AB 1234 training.
Officials who begin service before January 1, 2026 must complete their initial training before January 1, 2028, unless their terms of service end before January 9, 2028 (in which case they are excused). Officials beginning service on or after January 1, 2026 must complete their initial training within six months of their start dates. Thereafter, officials must complete an additional two hours every two years.
Read BBK’s complete legal alert on SB 827 here.
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Housing and Community
Senate Bill 634 declares homelessness a matter of statewide concern, not a municipal affair, and limits a local jurisdiction’s authority to regulate activities related to homelessness. Specifically, SB 634 prohibits a city, county or special district from adopting a local ordinance—or enforcing an existing one—that prohibits (1) a person or organization from providing support services (including legal or medical care) to a person who is homeless or (2) assisting a person who is homeless with any act related to basic survival.
An “act related to basic survival” includes, but is not limited to, assisting with or providing items to assist with: (1) eating and drinking—including providing food and water; (2) sleeping—including providing blankets and pillows; (3) protecting oneself from the elements; or (4) other activities and items necessary for immediate personal health and hygiene. The distribution of plywood or other heavy construction materials is not considered a protected form of assistance under the bill.
SB 634 may present challenges as local jurisdictions interpret the bill’s limits on their efforts to address homelessness, encampments and related public health and safety concerns. For example, the bill introduces ambiguity as to whether the distribution of certain materials that may present safety and sanitary concerns—such as camping materials or other non-heavy construction materials—can be regulated.
Senate Bill 346 provides local agencies with a new tool to address short-term rentals operating within its jurisdiction. Cities and counties can now enact an ordinance that requires “short-term rental facilitators,” such as Airbnb and VRBO, to share information about short-term rentals during a specified reporting period.
Cities and counties can now, through the adoption of an ordinance, require short-term rental facilitators to report the physical address, assessor parcel number, URL of the listing and unit-specific information if there is more than one unit at the address. Reports may be requested as often as every three months. However, if a city or county requires monthly remittance of transient occupancy tax, it may request monthly reports. Cities and counties can implement additional high administrative fines or penalties for noncompliance with these reporting requirements.
SB 346 also requires short-term rental facilitators to include any applicable local license number associated with the short-term rental and any transient occupancy tax certification in the listing of each short-term rental. Local agencies may also audit records of a short-term rental facilitator to verify the remittance of transient occupancy tax.
Read BBK’s complete legal alert on SB 346 here.
Assembly Bill 671 provides a new procedure for streamlined restaurant building plan approval. After making a request to a local building department, a permit applicant may pay for a licensed architect or engineer (“qualified professional certifier”) to certify that the plans and specifications of proposed tenant improvements comply with applicable building, health and safety codes. The qualified professional certifier prepares affidavits under penalty of perjury relating to the tenant improvements. The certifiers are liable for damages due to negligent plan review, and the applicant must indemnify the local agency for property damage or personal injury arising from the permitted construction. The local building department must then approve or deny the permit application within 20 business days of receipt of a complete application. If it is not approved in that timeframe, it will be deemed approved. If an applicant resubmits corrected plans after denial, the building department’s review is limited to deficiencies in the initial denial, with just 10 days to approve or deny the resubmitted application. The bill also requires the local building department to conduct random audits of not less than 20 percent of all tenant improvements submitted per week for certification. Cities and counties may impose additional registration, training, penalties or fees on the qualified professional certifiers. These projects will also be exempt from CEQA, provided that the streamlined, ministerial review processes of the bill apply to a final, discretionary approval of a tenant improvement.
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Wildfire Mitigation
On September 29, 2025, Governor Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 254 in response to the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades wildfires. This law seeks to improve wildfire safety, addressing funding and regulation of electrical transmission projects and stabilizing the homeowner insurance market and investor-owned utilities (IOUs) from increasing wildfire risks due to climate change. This bill will strive to stabilize the state Wildfire Fund after the January 2025 fires and accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy.
A limited list of SB 254’s features includes the following:
- Creation of a Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator to coordinate activities related to electrical transmission and planning, and also develop a financing and development strategy for eligible transmission projects;
- Creation of a California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund that may be used by eligible transmission projects to access financial assistance, including bonds, through January 1, 2031;
- Modification of CEQA requirements for eligible clean energy projects: creates a rebuttable presumption that projects have a net positive impact for local governments; streamlines certification by reducing certain application findings; and clarifies that utility undergrounding plans are not CEQA projects;
- Addition of $18 billion to the state Wildfire Fund to improve financial stability for IOUs;
- Opportunity for IOUs to apply for fixed recovery charges from utility ratepayers to recoup the costs of settled or adjudicated claims when the Wildfire Fund is exhausted;
- Creation of a Continuation Account in the Wildfire Fund and extends the ratepayer charge through 2045, authorizing up to $9 billion in bonds and $3.9 billion in collections; authorizes annual contributions of $300 million to the fund from IOUs allocated as follows: 47.85 percent for Pacific Gas and Electric, 47.85 percent for Southern California Edison, and 4.30 percent for San Diego Gas and Electric;
- Prohibition on IOUs from including the first $6 billion in fire risk mitigation capital expenditures in their equity base rate through 2035; and
- Authorization of the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing authority to sponsor, finance, purchase, lease, own, operate, acquire or construct an eligible transmission project.
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Public Contracts/Water Infrastructure
Senate Bill 598 provides certain local water agencies with a new tool to streamline infrastructure projects. These agencies can now utilize the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) project delivery method for recycled water facilities or infrastructure designed to alleviate water shortages attributable to drought, climate change or other environmental factors.
SB 598 adopts the procedures used by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to deliver CM/GC projects under previous legislation and is codified in the Public Contract Code, commencing with Section 22199.5. The authority is limited to cities, counties and special districts that are authorized to manage and provide for the production, storage, supply, treatment or distribution of any water from any source. It can be used for 15 capital outlay projects for each agency, is valid until January 1, 2031, and requires an enforceable commitment from the construction manager that it and its subcontractors will use a skilled and trained workforce to perform all work on the project, unless there is a project labor agreement.
The CM/GC project delivery method has several potential benefits, including expedited project completion, minimized project delays and budget overages, and reduced risks and costs for a local agency.
Read BBK’s complete legal alert on SB 598 here.
Key Contacts
