Carlsbad, CA
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The City Council's Legislative Subcommittee regularly reviews pending legislation affecting Carlsbad to ensure our city's interests are represented. The city takes a formal position on or sponsors certain legislation, based on the City Council's legislative platform.
State legislation
AB 35 Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024: Administrative Procedure Act: exemption: program guidelines and selection criteria
City Position: Support as amended
AB 35 would exempt the regulations needed to distribute funds from the 2024 Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act (Proposition 4) from the state’s Administrative Procedure Act and require agencies receiving competitive grant funds to submit draft guidelines for posting on the Natural Resources Agency website. This is intended to streamline how funding guidelines and selection criteria for those bond-funded programs are developed and shared.
Letter of support (as amended)
AB 748 Single-family and multifamily housing units: preapproved plans
City position: Oppose
AB 748 would require local agencies to develop preapproval programs for single-family and multifamily residential housing plans and mandate ministerial, non-discretionary approval of applications utilizing such plans within 30 days.
AB 1557 Vehicles: electric bicycles
City position: Support
AB 1557 would reduce the maximum assisted speed for Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes from 20 miles per hour to 16 miles per hour, cap continuous motor power at 250 watts for those classes, and establish meaningful civil penalties for manufacturers and retailers that sell non-compliant devices.
AB 1569 Pupil safety: electric bicycle parking: safety program
City Position: Support
AB 1569 would require each school that allows pupils to park electric bicycles on campus during regular school hours to require pupils to complete the electric bicycle safety and training program developed by the California Highway Patrol.
AB 1614 Vehicles: bicycles
City position: Support
AB 1614 would prohibit “piggybacking” (i.e., more than one person riding a bicycle or e-bike without a properly installed, separate seat for each rider) on bikes and e-bikes on Class I bikeways.
AB 1667 Serious felonies: furnishing fentanyl to a minor
City position: Support
AB 1667 would designate the act of furnishing fentanyl to a minor as a serious felony, similar to how the distribution of other controlled substances such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and PCP is currently treated.
AB 1708 Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program: round 8
City position: Support
AB 1708 would ensure that smaller jurisdictions — cities with populations under 300,000 — receive meaningful access to Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) Round 8 funding through their regional continuums of care.
AB 1821 California Public Records Act: agency response time
City position: Support
AB 1821 would make targeted improvements to the California Public Records Act by authorizing agencies to recover reasonable administrative costs for time-intensive records requests and by converting existing calendar-day response deadlines to business days.
AB 1866 California Disaster Assistance Act: minimum damages thresholds
City position: Support
AB 1866 would require the Director of Emergency Services to prioritize local agencies that are ineligible for federal disaster assistance because they cannot meet federal minimum damage thresholds, and would clarify the types of costs that local agencies may count toward their required share of state disaster assistance funding.
AB 1895 Surplus Land Act: exemptions: land unsuitable for housing
City position: Support
AB 1895 would broaden the definition of exempt surplus land under the Surplus Land Act to include land that is unsuitable for housing development due to the presence of specified physical hazards.
AB 2179 Workplace violence: restraining orders
City Position: Sponsor
AB 2179 would permit any party or witness in a workplace violence restraining order proceeding to appear remotely at the hearing. It would also ensure courts do not charge a fee for participating remotely and would require courts to allow electronic submission of filings related to these protective orders, improving timely access to the court process. The bill reduces practical barriers to participation and supports workplace safety by making restraining order proceedings more accessible and safer to navigate.
AB 2284 Vehicles: electric bicycles
City position: Support
AB 2284 requires the California Highway Patrol, in partnership with biking nonprofit groups, to compile and publicly maintain a list of two-wheeled devices that do not comply with any of California's electric bicycle classifications yet are labeled, advertised, or commonly perceived by riders or peace officers as electric bicycles or electric bicycle products.
AB 2296 Planning and zoning: housing element: regional housing needs allocation
City position: Support
AB 2296 would make important procedural reforms to the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process to extend planning timelines, improve the quality of guidance provided by the Department of Housing and Community Development, and protect local jurisdictions from last-minute changes to housing element requirements.
AB 2346 Vehicles: electric bicycles and speed limits
City position: Support
AB 2346 would establish a comprehensive framework to improve electric bicycle safety through equipment standards, consumer disclosure requirements, local speed limit authority, and age-appropriate riding restrictions.
AB 2373 The California Coastal Act: local coastal program: sea level rise plan: neighborhood-scale adaptation approach
City position: Support
AB 2373 would authorize local governments within the coastal zone to include a neighborhood-scale adaptation approach in their Local Coastal Programs and sea level rise plans.
AB 2453 Vehicles: off-highway motor vehicles
City Position: Sponsor
AB 2453 would authorize qualified first responders to operate off-highway vehicles upon a highway to provide emergency response services or while performing official departmental duties. This will allow peace officers, firefighters, paramedics, lifeguards and emergency medical technicians to respond to emergencies on beaches, trails, unpaved roads, and other challenging terrain more quickly.
AB 2517 Fire safety: fire hazard severity zones
City position: Support
AB 2517 would require the State Fire Marshal to conduct meaningful public engagement, enhance transparency in the mapping methodology, and establish a regular, codified review cycle to be completed before Fire Hazard Severity Zone designations in local responsibility areas are finalized.
SB 490 Alcohol and drug programs
City position: Support
SB 490 would strengthen state oversight of unlicensed alcohol and drug recovery or treatment facilities and improve accountability for the flow of funds between licensed programs and recovery residences.
SB 677 Housing development: transit-oriented development
City Position: Oppose
SB 677 would update state land-use law governing transit-oriented housing by redefining qualifying transit stops, expanding the types of transit services that count, and adjusting where such housing may be developed near transit stops. It also includes changes to how eligible housing projects are reviewed and sets criteria for streamlined development near transit.
SB 722 Transit-oriented housing development: excluded parcels and sites
City position: Support as amended
SB 722 would make parcels governed by the Mobile home Residency Law, Recreational Vehicle Park Occupancy Law, Mobile home Parks Act, or Special Occupancy Parks Act ineligible for the transit-oriented streamlining pathway provided for under California’s housing rules. This adds to existing rules that already restrict certain other sensitive sites from qualifying for streamlined transit-oriented development.
Letter of support (as amended)
SB 758 Public Health: Nitrous Oxide
City position: Support
SB 758 would protect public health by restricting retail sales of nitrous oxide.
SB 1014 Development projects: preliminary estimate of required improvements: onsite and offsite improvements
City position: Oppose
SB 1014 would prohibit a local or state agency from requiring any onsite or offsite improvements to a housing development project that were not disclosed within 30 days of a postentitlement phase permit application, and would impose new obligations on cities, counties, and other public agencies to provide itemized improvement lists and good-faith cost estimates within specified timeframes.
SB 1167 Vehicles: electric bicycles
City position: Support
SB 1167 would clarify and strengthen California's vehicle classification framework for electric bicycles, mopeds, and motor-driven cycles by prohibiting the deceptive marketing of non-compliant vehicles as e-bikes, updating vehicle definitions to account for electric propulsion technology, requiring robust consumer disclosures from manufacturers and sellers of electric motor-driven cycles and mopeds, and establishing new safety certification requirements for the operation of electric-powered off-highway vehicles on fire-prone lands.
SB 1318 Coastal resources: coastal development permit: non-owner-occupied short-term rentals
City position: Support
SB 1318 would require the California Coastal Commission to approve coastal development permits and local coastal program amendments that restrict or prohibit non-owner-occupied short-term rentals.
Federal legislation
H.R. 973 Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act
City position: Support
H.R. 973 would enhance public safety and consumer protection by requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish enforceable safety standards for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in micromobility devices such as electric bikes and scooters.
H.R. 1267 Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act
City position: Support
H.R. 1267 would provide liability protections for public water and wastewater utilities—and, by extension, the public ratepayers they serve— against PFAS polluters’ clean-up liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
H.R. 2786 Resilient Coasts and Estuaries Act of 2025
City position: Support
H.R. 2786 would reauthorize the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) – a key program that has helped local and state governments preserve ecologically significant coastal areas.