New California Legislation Impacting Commercial Real Estate in 2023

With the turn of the year comes ill-fated resolutions, needed but annoying rain, and a slew of new legislative enactments coming into effect. While commercial real estate is not typically a hotbed for legislative activity, there are a few noteworthy changes that may affect prospective projects, mostly focused on relaxing procedural requirements to incentivize the construction of new housing projects to combat the state’s ongoing housing crisis.

AB 2907 prohibits a public agency from imposing a minimum parking requirement on any development project that is located within one-half mile of a major transit stop, including commercial projects which are not for housing purposes. Exceptions apply for certain circumstances where the local jurisdiction concludes the lack of adequate parking will have a substantial, negative impact on the community, but the standards for these exceptions have been heightened.