Assembly BillPassed first houseGovernment
AB 2385: Local reconstruction agencies.
What AB 2385 does, verified August 15, 2026
<p>The bill amends existing disaster preparedness laws by requiring cities and counties preparing disaster recovery plans to ensure consistency with their general plans. It introduces provisions for intermediate recovery and reconstruction phases in contingency plans and mandates the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to assess statewide recovery needs and develop model ordinance language.</p> <p>The legislation authorizes local subdivisions to establish a Local Reconstruction Agency (LRA) through an adopted ordinance, granting it powers such as suing and being sued, making contracts, issuing bonds, and accepting financial assistance. The LRA must have a board with members from legislative bodies of affected entities and the public, subject to transparency laws.</p> <p>The bill also mandates that LRAs specify a termination date not exceeding 45 years after bond issuance or loan a…
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Last action: In committee: Held under submission. (2026-08-13)Alert me
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| Aug. 13, 2026 | In committee: Held under submission. |
| Aug. 13, 2026 | In committee: Hearing postponed by committee. |
| Aug. 10, 2026 | In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. |
| Aug. 03, 2026 | From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
| Jul. 01, 2026 | From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
Latest bill textAmended version, August 3, 2026 · 1,723 words
| Amended IN Senate August 03, 2026 |
| Amended IN Senate June 24, 2026 |
| Amended IN Assembly April 27, 2026 |
| Amended IN Assembly April 14, 2026 |
| Amended IN Assembly April 08, 2026 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2385
| Introduced by Assembly Member Petrie-Norris (Coauthor: Assembly Member Ransom) (Coauthors: Senators Grayson and Stern) |
February 20, 2026 |
An act to amend Sections 8877.4 and 8877.5 of, and to add Sections 8877.7, 8877.8, and 8877.9 to, the Government Code, relating to disaster preparedness.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2385, as amended, Petrie-Norris. Local reconstruction agencies.
The Community Redevelopment Law established redevelopment agencies in each community and granted specified powers to those redevelopment agencies for the purpose of promoting redevelopment in blighted areas. Existing law dissolved those community redevelopment agencies in 2012.
Other existing law, the Disaster Recovery Reconstruction Act of 1986, authorizes each city, county, or other local subdivision, as provided, to prepare, prior to a disaster, plans and ordinances facilitating the expeditious and orderly recovery and reconstruction of the area in case of a disaster. Existing law authorizes the plans and ordinances to include, among other things, a contingency plan of action and organization for short-term and long-term recovery and reconstruction to be instituted after a disaster. Existing law authorizes the plans and ordinances to include the authority and proposed organization for establishment of a local reconstruction authority with powers parallel to those of a community redevelopment agency, except as specified.
This bill would refer to those plans as a disaster recovery plan and would require a city or county that prepares a disaster recovery plan to amend its general plan, if necessary, as provided, to ensure consistency between both plans. The bill would revise the contingency plan of action and organization to include intermediate recovery and reconstruction, in addition to the short-term and long-term recovery and reconstruction, and would specify elements that may be included in the contingency plan of action and organization. The bill would require the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, on or before January 1, 2029, and in consultation with other specified state and local entities, to assess the recovery and rebuilding needs of jurisdictions across the state and develop model ordinance language, as provided. The bill would also require the Office of Emergency Services, on or before January 1, 2029, and in consultation with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, to prepare guidance on disaster recovery plans, as provided.
Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or a county to designate a proposed enhanced infrastructure financing district (EIFD) to finance public capital facilities or other specified projects pursuant to specified procedures, including adoption of a resolution of intention to establish the proposed district and adoption of an enhanced infrastructure financing plan, as specified. Existing law authorizes the enhanced infrastructure financing plan to contain a provision for the division of taxes levied upon taxable property within the EIFD and authorizes the public financing authority of the EIFD to issue bonds, as provided. Existing law authorizes a city, county, city and county, special district, or a combination of any of those entities to form a climate resilience district (CRD), as described, for the purposes of raising and allocating funding for eligible projects and the operating expenses of eligible projects. Existing law deems each CRD to be an EIFD and requires each district to comply with existing law concerning EIFDs, except as specified, including requiring a CRD to follow the procedures for the division of taxes and issuance of tax increment bonds applicable to EIFDs. Existing law further authorizes a city or county to adopt a resolution to establish a type of CRD specifically to finance disaster recovery efforts without following specified procedures, if certain conditions are met.
This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county that takes certain actions pursuant to the bill to adopt an ordinance establishing a local reconstruction agency to coordinate disaster recovery efforts in the areas impacted by a disaster. The bill would require the ordinance to include procedures for determining the boundaries of a local reconstruction area, as defined. The bill would authorize the ordinance to grant the local reconstruction agency specified powers, including, among other powers, to sue and be sued, to make and execute contracts, and to accept financial assistance from any public or private source. The bill would authorize a local reconstruction agency to adopt a resolution providing for the division of taxes and issuance of bonds pursuant to the above-described provisions governing CRDs and disaster recovery CRDs, as specified.
This bill would require the local reconstruction agency to have a board with a membership consisting of members of the legislative bodies of participating affected taxing entities and members of the public, as prescribed. The bill would deem the board a local public agency and make it subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act, the California Public Records Act, and the Political Reform Act of 1974.
This bill would require a city, county, or other local subdivision of the state to ensure that it specifies a date on which the local recovery reconstruction agency will cease to exist, and would prohibit that date from being more than 45 years from the date on which a bond is issued, or the issuance of a loan is approved, as provided.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 8877.4 of the Government Code is amended to read:8877.4.
As used in this chapter:(a) “Affected taxing entity” means any city, county, or city and county that adopts a resolution agreeing to participate in a local reconstruction agency created pursuant to Section 8877.7.
(b) “Disaster” means a devastating earthquake or other conditions specified in subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 8558.
(c) “Local reconstruction area” means an area identified pursuant to the procedures set forth in an ordinance adopted pursuant to Section 8877.7 in which disaster damage has caused conditions that are so prevalent and so substantial that they have caused a reduction, or a lack, of the normal predisaster usage of the area to an extent that causes a serious physical and economic burden that cannot reasonably be expected to be reversed or alleviated by private enterprise or governmental action, or both, without redevelopment. A local reconstruction area may include noncontiguous areas. Areas adjacent to the areas directly impacted by disaster damage may be included within the boundaries of the local reconstruction area, but those adjacent areas shall be no more than 20 percent of the total local reconstruction area.
(d) “Recovery” means the overall short-term and long-term restoration of social, economic, and institutional activity to levels comparable to those which existed prior to the disaster.
(e) “Reconstruction” means the renovation, replacement, or rebuilding of damaged or destroyed facilities which will enable this recovery to occur.
SEC. 2.
Section 8877.5 of the Government Code is amended to read:8877.5.
(a) Each city, county, or other local subdivision of the state, in conjunction with planning activities authorized under Article 5 (commencing with Section 65300) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7 and Article 10 (commencing with Section 8610) of Chapter 7, may prepare, prior to a disaster, a disaster recovery plan and ordinances facilitating the expeditious and orderly recovery and reconstruction of the area under its jurisdiction, should a disaster occur. The plan and ordinances may include any of the following:(1) An evaluation of the vulnerability of specific areas under its jurisdiction to damage from a potential disaster, together with streamlined procedures for the appropriate modification of existing general plans or zoning ordinances affecting those areas after a disaster.
(2) A contingency plan of action and organization for short-term, intermediate, and long-term recovery and reconstruction to be instituted after a disaster, including, but not limited to, the following:
(A) Operational structure.
(B) Roles and responsibilities for leadership and coordination.
(C) Recovery priorities.
(D) Mitigation strategies.
(E) Identification of programs, resources, and funding mechanisms to be utilized within each phase of recovery.
(F) Procedures to guide postdisaster decisionmaking and resource allocation.
(G) Strategies to coordinate with departments, agencies, and organizations involved in recovery, including, but not limited to, state and local governmental entities, nonprofit organizations, private sector partners, and programs that provide recovery-related resources.
(3) An ordinance, to be adopted prior to the disaster, which could be invoked as soon as possible after the event and which would provide necessary local authorization for activities designated under paragraphs (1) and (2).
(4) Procedures for integration with state and federal recovery frameworks.
(b) The plan and ordinances may include the authority and proposed organization for establishment of a local reconstruction agency, as provided in Section 8877.7.
(c) The plan and organizational arrangements may be made separately or jointly by formal cooperative arrangements with other cities, counties, and local entities, including climate resilience districts and enhanced infrastructure financing districts that operate within a city, county, or other local subdivision of the state.
(d) If, in preparing a disaster recovery plan, a city or county determines that its general plan should be amended to ensure consistency between both plans, the city or county shall amend the general plan within a reasonable time.
(e) (1) (A) To assist local jurisdictions in the preparation of the plan and ordinances authorized pursuant to subdivision (a), on or before January 1, 2029, the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation shall, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services and, where appropriate, regional councils of governments, assess the recovery and rebuilding needs of jurisdictions across the state and develop model ordinance language to satisfy the authorization in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a). The The Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation may periodically update or revise the model ordinance language at its discretion.
(B) On or before January 1, 2029, t
he Office of Emergency Services, in consultation with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, shall prepare guidance on disaster recovery plans.(2)
The model ordinance language and the guidance shall be designed to be adaptable by jurisdictions based on geographic location, governmental structure, capacity, and any other factors the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation or the Office of Emergency Services deems relevant.Text of AB 2385 as amended, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions