California Senate Bill 92 (“SB 92”), introduced in January 2025 by Senator Catherine Blakespear and having been passed by both the California State Assembly and State Senate was approved by the Governor on October 10, 2025. SB 92 amends California’s Density Bonus Law (Government Code Section 65915 et seq.) (“SDBL”) to limit a developer’s ability to apply for concessions, incentives, and waivers of development standards for mixed-use projects that include nonresidential uses.
Continue Reading Legislature Adopts Bill to Limit Density Bonus Law Benefits for Mixed-Use Projects

On Friday, September 19, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a package of bills adopted by the California Legislature. Key among these were AB 1207 and SB 840, which extend the state’s Cap-and-Trade — now rebranded as the Cap-and-Invest — Program through 2045 while making modest changes to it.
Continue Reading California Extends Carbon Market through 2045 with Modest Changes; Provides Market Stability and Reaffirms the State’s Climate Commitments

The recent wave of executive orders issued under the Trump Administration marks a dramatic shift in the landscape of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policy, sustainability initiatives, and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs at the federal level. From rescinding previous climate-related directives to terminating DEI programs and altering federal enforcement priorities, these sweeping changes have far-reaching implications for businesses, contractors, educational institutions and other stakeholders across all sectors.
Continue Reading Comprehensive Guide to Trump’s Executive Actions on ESG, DEI & Environmental Policy

California’s Commercial Tenant Protection Act (SB-1103) took effect on January 1, 2025. Conceived as a transparency and displacement prevention measure for small businesses, the new law creates tenant protections for small enterprises and nonprofits leasing commercial property that resemble those more typically found in residential leases. A tenant who self-attests that it is a “Qualified Commercial Tenant” (“QCT”) within the meaning of SB-1103 may receive longer notice periods for rent increases and lease terminations, as well as new rights and remedies with respect to passthroughs of operational costs. Under certain circumstances, the law also requires landlords to provide translations for…
Continue Reading California SB-1103: What Landlords Need to Know About New Rights for Small Business Tenants

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…
Continue Reading New CEQA Exemptions in 2025: Streamlining Housing & Infrastructure Development in California

On June 16, 2025, the San Diego City Council voted 5-4 to cap the number of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) that can be built on single-family lots. The decision reverses the City’s 2020 implementation of a program allowing developers to build a nearly unlimited number of ADUs—a robust incentive previously heralded as a solution to the City’s burgeoning housing affordability crisis. This program rollback reflects local jurisdictions struggles in addressing the lack of affordable housing supply and meeting Housing Element requirements while facing stark community opposition to high-density development.
Continue Reading San Diego ADU Incentive Rollback Sheds Light on California Housing Woes

A Federal District Court in California has ruled that Proposition 65 warning requirements for dietary acrylamide are unconstitutional. The California Chamber of Commerce (“CalChamber”) sued five years ago challenging the statewide requirement under Proposition 65 for warning labels on foods containing acrylamide. (California Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta, No. 2:19-cv-02019-DJC-JDP.) This ruling is a major victory for CalChamber and the latest chapter in its long battle with the California Attorney General and private enforcer Council for Education and Research on Toxics (“CERT”) over whether a warning can be required by the State in light of the disputed science around acrylamide.
Continue Reading Trial Court Strikes Down California’s Prop 65 Acrylamide Warning Requirements

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a comprehensive set of actions to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination on April 28, 2025, with a focus on preventing PFAS from entering drinking water systems, holding polluters accountable, and protecting passive receivers. According to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, this announcement represents the initial phase of a strategy aimed at tackling PFAS contamination throughout the Trump Administration. Despite the announcement’s emphasis on enforcement, significant questions remain regarding the EPA’s commitment to existing core PFAS regulation.
Continue Reading Unpacking EPA’s PFAS Announcement: Addressing Contamination with Ambiguity Ahead

Until this year, food companies—often the target of Proposition 65 enforcement actions—have been limited to specific “full-length” language for Prop 65 warnings, without explicit guidance regarding whether short-form warnings could be used as a safe harbor warning for food products and non-alcoholic beverages. Prior to the implementation of amended regulations this year, Prop 65 regulations required the following full-length warnings for food products containing a listed carcinogen or reproductive toxicant:…
Continue Reading Navigating the Legal Soup: A New “Short-Form” Recipe for Prop 65 Warnings on Food and Beverages

The current commercial real estate market has faced ongoing distress across various asset classes for several years. In the Practical Real Estate Lawyer article, “Primer on Commercial Real Estate Loan Workouts and Right-Sizing,” Sheppard Mullin Real Estate, Energy, Land Use & Environmental partner Richard Fries explores both traditional solutions for managing a distressed commercial real estate loan and suggests an innovative approach to right-sizing distressed real estate debt and assets. This approach applies regardless of the type of real estate asset or its location or emotional factors involved. Real estate right-sizing, meticulously aligned with economic factors, market conditions, asset specifics, recourse,…
Continue Reading Primer on Commercial Real Estate Loan Workouts and Right-Sizing

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…
Continue Reading Federal Proposal to Rescind ESA’s ‘Harm’ Definition Raises the Stakes for California’s AB 1319

This report provides an overview of major federal environmental regulations and court decisions of 2024. Landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions with lasting consequences for environmental policy include Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024),1 which ended judicial deference to administrative agencies, and Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, 603 U.S. 799 (2024), which opened the doors of federal courts to many more plaintiffs challenging regulations. These decisions have subsequently bolstered efforts to limit or rollback regulatory actions, both by industry and by members of the Trump administration. The Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to rescind or invalidate…
Continue Reading Environmental YIR: 2024 Regulatory Legacies and Impacts

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