From SOHOWe have some very good news to share: Monday, September 14, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2576 into law!
This is an important victory for historic preservation, and you helped make it happen.
Thank you to everyone who contacted the Governor, sent emails, shared our action alert, and spoke up in support of this important legislation. Your voices mattered.
AB 2576 closes an important gap in California’s new transit-oriented housing law, SB 79. It provides protections for qualifying contributing properties within historic districts listed in the California Historical Resources Inventory Database, as well as individually listed historic resources in the inventory, when designated before January 1, 2025.
Adding housing should not require sacrificing the historic places that give our communities their character, continuity, and sense of place.
Historic districts are living neighborhoods and protecting them can happen without unnecessarily destroying the places that tell our communities’ stories.
We are grateful to Assemblymember John Harabedian, Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, and everyone who worked to get this legislation across the finish line.
If you have a moment, please consider sending a quick thank-you to Assemblymember John Harabedian and Senator Sasha Renée Pérez for championing AB 2576. Legislators hear from us frequently when we need their help; it is just as important to thank them when they deliver for historic preservation.
https://harabedian.asmdc.org
https://sd25.senate.ca.gov
And most of all, thank you for taking action when we asked.
This is what preservation advocacy looks like and this is what we can accomplish when we speak up together.
With gratitude, SOHO
WOW! That’s huge. Good job SOHO members.
Hip Hip, Horaay!!!! for SB 79 for protecting our historic districts listed by the State of California and individually designated properties granted that status before Januyary 1, 2025. Now we need to make that more comprehensive for locally designated districts and properties!
Exactly what areas in San Diego does AB 2576 protect?
Well. SB79 is all his fault so now…..he’s trying to make nice??
California SB 79 Transit-Oriented Development is a landmark housing law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 10, 2025, that overrides local zoning rules to allow taller, denser housing near major public transit stations.