A brand new yr brings new state legal guidelines, with Gov. Gavin Newsom signing lots of of payments addressing lots of California’s urgent points.
The payments vary from cracking down on crime to creating safer areas in colleges for LGBTQ+ college students, all of which is able to have an effect on Silicon Valley.
Right here’s a listing of some legal guidelines that take impact in 2025.
Hashish and alcohol
Meeting Invoice 1775: Hashish cafes will probably be allowed to promote meals and drinks that aren’t pre-packaged, in addition to tickets to performances, reminiscent of dwell music. Purple Lotus opened San Jose’s first downtown retail storefront for hashish this yr.
Senate Invoice 969: The invoice permits native governments, together with metropolis and county, to ascertain leisure zones so bars and eating places can promote alcoholic drinks on public streets and sidewalks. The leisure zones should be reviewed each two years.
Training
Meeting Invoice 1955: Public colleges will not be capable to have or create insurance policies requiring employees to contact a pupil’s dad and mom about their youngster’s sexual orientation, gender identification or expression with out the scholar’s consent.
Gabrielle Antolovich, board president of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Middle, mentioned she’s joyful Newsom signed the invoice. When Antolovich was rising up, she mentioned employees at her college instructed her dad and mom about her attraction to ladies which led to shaming.
“The varsity is a spot of training the place you find out about who you’re, and also you get to experiment with what that looks like till you’re prepared to inform your loved ones,” Antolovich instructed San José Highlight.
The invoice comes throughout a neighborhood uproar over LGBTQ+ matters within the classroom. In Cupertino, a nonbinary instructor was positioned on go away after dad and mom grew upset over materials referring to gender identification and expression of their classroom.
Meeting Invoice 1825: The Freedom to Learn Act prohibits public libraries from banning books on the only real foundation of the inclusion of race, nationality, faith, gender identification, sexual orientation, incapacity or political affiliation. The regulation requires all public and college libraries to undertake a group growth coverage to information the “choice and deselection of library supplies” and set up a course of for the neighborhood to share considerations over supplies by January 2026.
Meeting Invoice 1821: California public colleges will probably be required to show the impression of the Mission interval and Gold Rush on Native People.
Meeting Invoice 1780: The invoice will ban legacy admission, together with prioritized admission for college students related to donors, for faculties that settle for state funding starting in September.
Client
Meeting Invoice 375: Meals supply providers, reminiscent of DoorDash and UberEats, should present clients with the primary and final title of their supply driver, together with a photograph, efficient in March.
Housing
Senate Invoice 1211: Tiny properties, often known as accent dwelling items (ADUs), are an ever-growing pattern in Silicon Valley. The invoice will increase the utmost variety of ADUs on a web site with multifamily dwellings from two to eight, relying on the variety of present properties. San Jose was the primary California metropolis to permit the sale of ADUs as condos to assist create extra inexpensive housing.
Senate Invoice 450: The invoice requires native governments to drop sure zoning necessities, making it simpler for owners to divide their properties into as many as 4 separate items. It strengthens Senate Invoice 9, handed in 2021, which permits owners to subdivide heaps for brand new building and construct as much as 4 properties on every lot.
Senate Invoice 1395: Also referred to as the Interim Housing Act, the invoice makes it simpler for cities to construct non permanent tiny properties for homeless residents.
Meeting Invoice 2347: New laws additionally elevated tenant protections. The invoice, authored by native District 25 Assemblymember Ash Kalra, provides tenants 10 enterprise days to answer an eviction discover, quite than 5.
The invoice may assist San Jose residents. A current audit discovered San Jose doesn’t have clear tips for taking motion towards property house owners who break the regulation and unjustly evict tenants.
Employment
Senate Invoice 988: The Freelance Employee Safety Act would require unbiased contractors to be paid on or earlier than their contract date, or no later than 30 days after service completion if there’s no particular date.
Meeting Invoice 2123: Staff will probably be allowed to make use of paid household go away with out having to make use of trip hours first.
Crime
Proposition 36, which was handed by 68.4% of voters statewide quite than receiving Newsom’s signature, will impression crime in Santa Clara County. The proposition escalates the punishment for individuals who have repeatedly dedicated some drug and theft crimes from a misdemeanor to a felony and elongates some felony sentences.
The regulation additionally permits some individuals who full drug or psychological well being remedy to have their prices dismissed. It took impact Dec. 18.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan was a robust supporter of the proposition.
“I championed Prop. 36 as a result of we’d like higher instruments for holding repeat offenders accountable and guaranteeing that folks affected by extreme dependancy get remedy,” he instructed San José Highlight. “However it’ll solely make a distinction if state and county leaders increase in-patient remedy capability and are keen to make use of these new instruments to compel folks to make use of it.”
Meeting Invoice 2475: The invoice will increase how lengthy an incarcerated particular person who has dedicated a violent crime might be held in a psychological well being facility from 5 days to as much as 30 days if a choose deems they are often launched. The invoice goals to provide the state extra time for a extra complete launch plan, reminiscent of housing.
Senate Invoice 1414: The invoice raises the classification for soliciting and shopping for intercourse from minors beneath 16 from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Meeting Invoice 3209: The invoice, authored by native District 23 Assemblymember Marc Berman, permits retail shops to get a restraining order towards an individual who steals, vandalizes the shop or assaults an worker. Restraining order violators can obtain a misdemeanor.
“Whether or not you’re purchasing at a neighborhood retailer or working there, each Californian deserves to really feel secure,” Berman mentioned in a press release.