New York City voters ushered in sweeping changes to land use policy in the November mayoral election, approving four major City Charter amendments recommended by the Charter Revision Commission convened by Mayor Eric Adams in December 2024.Continue Reading NYC Charter Amendments Fast-Track Affordable Housing—What Developers Need to Know Now
After months of high drama, California Senate Bill 79 (“SB 79”) was signed by Governor Newsom on October 10—the latest salvo in a year of ambitious legislation to increase housing supply in California. Effective July 1, 2026 (within incorporated cities[1]), the new law opens new residential building opportunities near existing rail and bus stations in California’s most populous metropolitan areas.Continue Reading SB 79 – Major Changes to Transit-Oriented Development in California
On Monday, June 30, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills, AB 130 and SB 131, which provide new exemptions from, and streamlines the process, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). AB 130 creates a statutory exemption for qualifying infill housing projects, streamlines the CEQA review process for residential projects in the coastal zone, and provides procedural changes to the administrative review process to prevent unnecessary delays for new development projects. SB 131 focuses on accelerating public interest projects, such as clean water infrastructure, park and trail projects, and community support facility projects, by creating new exemption categories and streamlines processes for projects that would otherwise be CEQA-exempt but for a single condition. Both bills also include non-CEQA related provisions which seek to further support infill and public interest development.Continue Reading New CEQA Exemptions in 2025: Streamlining Housing & Infrastructure Development in California
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service (collectively, Services) proposed last week to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), sparking intense criticism from environmental advocacy groups. If finalized, the rescission would remove a longstanding protection for the habitat of wildlife species listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA, making regulatory compliance easier for many types of projects across the country. But it would also set up a potential collision between the current president’s deregulation efforts and one of several bills that California’s Legislature is considering as a way to compensate for potential “backsliding” of federal environmental protections, with the regulated community in California likely to be among the losers.Continue Reading Federal Proposal to Rescind ESA’s ‘Harm’ Definition Raises the Stakes for California’s AB 1319
In a further effort to revitalize and reimagine its downtown core, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has passed and the Mayor has signed legislation exempting certain residential conversion projects from development impact fees, including the City’s substantial inclusionary housing fee. The legislation exempts projects that replace non-residential uses with residential uses from development impact fees and affordable housing requirements and removes the deadline to apply to the City’s Commercial to Residential Adaptive Reuse Program.Continue Reading San Francisco Further Incentivizes Residential Conversion Projects by Waiving Development Impact Fees
A week after a large-scale fire at the Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County,[1] California Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 303. If passed, AB 303 – also referred to as the Battery Energy Safety & Accountability Act – will impact the development of large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in California. Intended to “improve safety standards and restore local oversight for [BESS] facilities in California,”[2] AB 303 will, among other things, limit approval authority to local governmental agencies, require local engagement in the permitting process, and establish mandatory buffer zones between BESS projects and “sensitive receptors.”Continue Reading Understanding AB 303: Potential Impacts for California BESS Project Development
As businesses and legal professionals strive to keep pace with California’s ever-changing regulatory environment, Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”) remains a key focal point. Known for its stringent requirements on chemical exposure warnings, Prop 65 continues to evolve, driven by new legislation, court rulings, and regulatory updates.Continue Reading Prop 65 Year-End Highlights: 2024’s Key Regulatory Changes, Legal Battles, and Enforcement Trends
Yesterday, the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee (by a vote of 4-3) and Land Use Committee (by a vote of 8-2 and one abstention) approved the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity text amendment (COYHO), with modifications. COYHO is the final piece of Mayor Eric Adams’s City of Yes vision, a trio of legislative packages that seek to modernize and update the city’s zoning regulations (the first being the City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality to promote sustainability, which passed in December 2023, and the second being the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity to support economic growth and resiliency, which passed in June 2024). Continue Reading City of Yes for Housing Opportunity Update
California recently amended its Proposition 65 regulations[1] to add several additional alternative “safe harbor” warning labels for foods containing acrylamide, a naturally-occurring byproduct that can result during high-heat cooking. By adding insights from a recent Ninth Circuit opinion into the legislative mix, California hopes it has crafted the recipe for success in its ongoing First Amendment battle over compulsory Prop 65 warning labels for foods containing disputed carcinogens like acrylamide.Continue Reading California Adds New Options to Growing Menu of Prop 65 Warning Labels for Foods Containing Acrylamide, Citing “Additional Guidance” from the Ninth Circuit
Despite strenuous opposition from both the state’s real estate and business communities,1 near the end of the 2024 Legislative cycle, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 98 (“AB 98”) – a bill that, among other things, creates buffer zones and imposes other statewide design and build standards around new warehouse development.2 The bill, which overrides local land use programs, segregates these standards based on warehouse sizes and location within the state. Purportedly, AB 98 is intended to mitigate the negative health impacts associated with warehouse and logistics facility uses have on nearby communities, namely in the Inland Empire region. Prior to the Governor’s signature, the bill passed by fairly narrow margins in both the State Senate and Assembly.Continue Reading A Deep Dive into AB 98’s Restrictions on the Logistics Industry: What the Bill Does and Does Not Do
As the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) continues to expand its jurisdictional reach, investors, property owners, and landlords should be aware of a growing focus on real estate transactions. Bridging a perceived gap between CFIUS’ mandate to safeguard U.S. national security and foreign investment in the U.S. real estate market, the U.S. Department of Treasury recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would strengthen CFIUS’ jurisdiction over real estate transactions. Specifically, the NPRM would greatly expand the list of military installations that could raise national security concerns, empowering CFIUS to review transactions involving the surrounding real estate; and expand the term “military installation” to encompass a larger number of sensitive facilities. These proposed changes are in response to a recent comprehensive assessment conducted by the Department of Defense regarding its military installations, and reflect the perception that real estate transactions in close proximity to sensitive USG facilities may convey strategic advantages to U.S. adversaries.Continue Reading Soil and Security: The Broadening Scope of CFIUS in Real Estate Transactions