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<ns0:Id>20250AB__185799INT</ns0:Id>
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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-02-11</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry</ns0:AuthorText>
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<ns0:Legislator>
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<ns0:Name>Aguiar-Curry</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title> An act to add Section 714.8 to the Civil Code, relating to land use. </ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>land use</ns0:RelatingClause>
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<ns0:Subject>Conditions of ownership: grocery stores.</ns0:Subject>
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<html:p>Existing law makes void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, or other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that effectively prohibits or restricts certain land uses, including the installation or use of a solar energy system or construction or use of an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit on certain lots.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would make void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, lease, or other recorded or unrecorded instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that effectively prohibits or restricts the use of that property as a grocery store or supermarket, as defined. The bill would include findings and declarations
relating to these provisions.</html:p>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
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<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
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Food insecurity and affordability are converging crises in California. More than 1 in 5 Californians is experiencing hunger, while food prices have increased by nearly 30 percent since 2020.
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<html:p>
(b)
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Food insecurity is exacerbated by longstanding racial and economic inequities, with Black and Latino households being over twice as likely to be food insecure compared to White counterparts, 92 percent of Native American households in the Klamath Basin of northern California suffering from food insecurity, and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in Southern California suffering from great
rates of food insecurity.
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<html:p>
(c)
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Food insecurity has severe and lasting consequences for public health, child development, and educational and economic outcomes. Even a single experience of hunger during childhood can have lifelong impacts. Food insecurity imposes substantial public costs, including more than $7,000,000,000 annually in health care costs in California, the most in the nation.
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<html:p>
(d)
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California produces more than one-half of the vegetables and approximately three-quarters of the fruits and nuts grown in the United States. Persistent hunger reflects barriers to physical, economic, and cultural access to food, rooted in racial discrimination, disinvestment, land use exclusion, and market manipulation.
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<html:p>
(e)
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Two million seven hundred thousand low-income Californians live in urban and rural areas that maintain low
geographical access to grocery stores, with one-half of Black neighborhoods across the United States having neither a supermarket nor a full-service grocery store.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
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Restrictive covenants contained in deeds, leases, and other land use documents prohibit the use of commercial property for food retail purposes, preventing food retailers from establishing at site, and therefore operating as private land use barriers that reduce food access, limit consumer choice, suppress competition, and create conditions for the high cost of food.
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(g)
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Historic redlining and racial segregation have shaped the geographic distribution of food retailers in California. Restrictive covenants function as a structural barrier to food access by reinforcing these patterns of disinvestment, resulting in Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) neighborhoods being disproportionately more likely to live
in food deserts compared to their White counterparts.
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<html:p>
(h)
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Restrictive covenants in housing deeds, which were used to prohibit non-White families from owning homes, were rendered judicially unenforceable by the United States Supreme Court in 1948. California law now prohibits the enforcement of such covenants and requires their identification and disavowal in property records.
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<html:p>
(i)
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In 2023, the State of California declared that every human being has the right to access sufficient affordable and healthy food, affirming the state’s responsibility to remove barriers that prevent Californians from obtaining affordable and healthy food.
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(j)
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It is therefore a matter of statewide concern to eliminate private land use restrictions that impede access to food. The Legislature finds that voiding restrictive covenants that
prohibit or limit grocery and supermarket uses is a reasonable and necessary exercise of the state’s power to protect public health, promote equity, and advance the welfare of all Californians.
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<ns0:BillSection id="id_F3B06457-24EA-479C-81B5-E83C18DD98A0">
<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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Section 714.8 is added to the
<ns0:DocName>Civil Code</ns0:DocName>
,
<ns0:Positioning>immediately following Section 714.7</ns0:Positioning>
, to read:
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<ns0:Num>714.8.</ns0:Num>
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(a)
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For purposes of this section, “grocery store” or “supermarket” means any retailer that sells food items.
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(b)
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Any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, lease, or other recorded or unrecorded instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that effectively prohibits or restricts the use of that property as a grocery store or supermarket shall be void and unenforceable.
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