California Governor, Gavin Newsom, signed 770 bills into law this year, many of them impacting people’s daily lives and will take effect as soon as Jan. 1, 2022.
Here are a few of the more noteworthy ones:
- Animal welfare: Proposition 12, approved by voters in 2018, makes the use of metal enclosures that restrict pigs from turning around and cages that prevent hens from opening their wings illegal.
- Minimum wage: SB 3 requires the minimum wage for all industries employing 26 or more employees to rise to $15, or $14 for those employing 25 or fewer workers.
- Housing Project Approval SB 8: an omnibus clean-up bill impacting several previous housing initiatives. Notably, it extends key provisions of SB 330, also known as the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (previously set to expire in 2025), until January 1, 2030. That act set limits on the local approval process for housing projects, curtailed local governments’ ability to downzone residential parcels after project initiation, and limited fee increases on housing applications, among other key provisions.
- SB 9, the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency (“HOME”) Act, provides for the creation of accessory dwelling units by local ordinance, or, if a local agency has not adopted an ordinance, by ministerial approval, in accordance with specified standards and conditions. facilitates the process for homeowners to subdivide their current residential lot or build a duplex. SB 9 allows for ministerial approval, without discretionary review or hearings, of duplex residential development on single-family zoned parcels. It also allows housing development projects of no more than two dwelling units on a single-family zoned parcel to be permitted on a ministerial basis if the project satisfies the SB 9 requirements.
- SB10 authorizes local government to adopt an ordinance to zone any parcel for up to 10 units of residential density per parcel, at a height specified in the ordinance, if the parcel is located in a transit-rich area or an urban infill site, as those terms are defined, notwithstanding any local restrictions on adopting zoning ordinances.
- Cocktails to go: SB 389 extends permission for getting cocktails and wine to go with dinner orders at restaurants until Dec. 31, 2026. The delivery of cocktails alone, however, ends Friday.
- Traffic safety: AB 43 authorizes local authorities to reduce speed limits to protect the safety of vulnerable groups such as pedestrians and cyclists.
- Non-conformity: A new law not taking full effect until 2024 mandates that department stores with more than 500 employees provide a gender-neutral section displaying “a reasonable selection” of items regardless of whether they’ve been traditionally marketed for either girls or boys. The law does not include clothing. LGBTQ advocates maintain use of pink and blue pressures children to conform to gender stereotypes.
- Food delivery apps: In an effort to support delivery workers and increase billing transparency, AB 286 makes it illegal for food delivery apps to retain any portion of a tip or gratuity. If the order is for delivery, tips must go to the individual worker. If the order is for pickup, the gratuity must go to the restaurant.
- Police reform: AB 1475 protects the rights of people arrested, but not yet prosecuted, forbidding law enforcement from posting mug shots of those arrested on suspicion of nonviolent crimes.
- Police decertification: Allows police officers who have committed misconduct to be de-certified. Previously, problematic officers could sometimes find employment in other areas without repercussions. Now, they could have their license revoked and not be able to simply switch departments after being fired.
- Rape: Alters California’s penal code to make rape within marriage the same as any other instance of rape.
- Recycling organic food waste -City of San Diego will use green bins for their food scraps, which will be emptied once a week and then recycled.
- Plastic waste – One law will require that any packaging with the widely-recognized “recycle arrows” symbol on it to be truly recyclable, which is not currently always the case. Another will ban the practice of exporting plastic waste to other countries and calling that “recycling.”
Partially From Times of San Diego
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