This is a short general-information note on developments that have been showing up in Bay Area real estate, land use, and California landlord-tenant work. It is not legal advice and does not address any particular property or tenancy. Confirm current statutes, ordinances, and case filings before relying on them.
September 30 was the Governor’s last day to sign or veto bills from the 2025–26 session, and several measures touching rental housing were signed that day. SB 1365 (Allen) amends Penal Code section 396, the emergency price-gouging statute, so that from January 1, 2027 the 10% cap after a declared emergency reaches rental housing regardless of the initial lease term, rather than only tenancies of a year or less. The bill also recasts several former exemptions as affirmative defenses, including a narrowed defense for increases tied to repair or addition costs incurred within the year before the emergency. SB 1296 (Durazo) adds Civil Code section 1942.7.5, which will require a written pet policy, access to it in online listings and advertising, and a copy with each rental application, along with an application-fee refund remedy in some cases. That section is not operative until April 1, 2027. AB 2689 (Ávila Farías of Martinez) addresses fully income-restricted tax-credit projects: it treats as good cause for lease nonrenewal a household whose income has exceeded 140% of area median income for at least two consecutive years and whose rent burden falls below a fair-market-rent test, with an earlier warning notice and a nonrenewal notice at least 90 days before the lease ends. AB 2128 (Haney), on housing-authority term limits and work requirements, was also signed.
On the land-use side, the same day’s signing list included bills on density bonuses (AB 2181 and SB 1383), streamlined approvals and subdivisions (AB 2601), transit-oriented housing (SB 1361), Subdivision Map Act actions (SB 1256), and unlicensed contractor work (SB 342). The Governor vetoed AB 1997, which would have shortened housing-approval timelines, and AB 1165, the California Housing Justice Act. Separately, the City of Concord announced on September 30 that SB 328 had been signed, exempting the former Concord Naval Weapons Station from certain CEQA requirements and requiring that 25% of the housing there be affordable to lower-income households. Read the chaptered text of any of these before relying on a summary; several were amended late in the session.
In Richmond, the Planning Commission on October 1 adopted Resolution 26-16 (PLN26-0184), approving a conditional use permit for a medical-waste transfer operation inside an existing warehouse at 801 Wharf Street (applicant Clean Harbors / Safety-Kleen). Meeting video and published summaries reflect a 3–0 vote with two commissioners absent, and the reported appeal deadline is October 13, 2026. Tonight, October 5, the Historic Preservation Commission takes up East Bay Regional Park District’s proposed service yard at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline (PLN25-0416), where staff is recommending conditional approval, along with a Mills Act program study session.
The City Council has noticed an October 20, 2026 public hearing, at 6:00 p.m., on extending Urgency Ordinance No. 13-26 N.S., the data-center moratorium adopted September 15, by 22 months and 15 days under Government Code section 65858. The city’s notice says the staff report will be posted by 5:00 p.m. on October 15. Until then, the 45-day moratorium runs at least through October 30. Anyone with a site, lease, or entitlement that could be read as a “data center” use should read the ordinance definition, including its carve-out for subordinate server rooms, before the hearing. The Richmond Rent Board’s next listed meeting is October 15, and the 2026–27 annual general adjustment remains 1.5%.
Rules and dockets change. Read the current text and the actual application file, not a weekly summary.