California Assembly Bill 2097 (AB 2097) is a 2022 California statute which prohibits California cities and other public agencies from mandating parking for most development projects within 0.5 miles (0.8 km) of a major transit stop. The law also establishes a "substantial hardship exception" which allows a public agency to impose a parking mandate within 0.5 miles of a major transit stop if the agency submits an application with evidence of a negative impact upon either the agency's ability to meet its RHNA obligations for low and very low income residents, disabled and elderly residents, or existing residential or commercial parking within 0.5 miles of a housing development project.
An earlier law, AB 744 (drafted by Ed Chau, signed by Jerry Brown in 2015), allowed for developers of certain types of affordable housing (housing for seniors, housing for special needs populations, housing for low-income and very-low income people, and mixed-income developments that include a minimum number of affordable units) to build less parking units than required by local zoning regulations upon request by the developer, unless the city demonstrates a need to require mandatory parking.
The law was drafted by Laura Friedman, and emanated from portions of California Senate Bill 50, an unsuccessful 2019 bill which would have both prohibited parking mandates within 0.5 miles of a major transit stop as well as mandated minimum four-plex residential zoning in the same locations.
Initially drafted as AB 1401 in 2021, the bill was passed by the Assembly but died in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Refiled in 2022 as AB 2097, the bill was passed by both houses by August 30, 2022, and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 22, 2022. Taking effect on January 1, 2023, California became the second state after Oregon to eliminate parking minimums near public transit.
A 2025 study argued that the law was overly complex and ambiguous, allowing for broad interpretation of the law by local governments ranging from expansive interpretations (including citywide repeal) on one end to uses of loopholes to subvert the law on the other. The study described the law as an example of the differences in ease of state preemption of local governments when applied to land use compared to other applications of preemption.
On September 19, 2024, Newsom signed into law AB 2553, which expanded both the definition of "major transit stop" under the California Environmental Quality Act to service frequency of 20 minutes or less, as well as eligibility for reduced traffic impact fees under the Mitigation Fee Act from "transit station" to "major transit stop". Previously, CEQA defined "major transit stop" as the intersection of two or more major bus routes with service of 15 minutes or less during peak commute periods. By extension, AB 2553 expanded the number of locations prohibited from parking mandates under AB 2097. The law also impacts the definition of "major transit stop" for several other laws, including the California Density Bonus Law, California HOME Act, CEQA, California Housing Accountability Act, the ADU law, the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act, and the Affordable Housing on Faith and Higher Education Lands Act of 2023 (SB 4, sometimes referred to as the "Yes in God's Backyard," or "YIGBY" legislation). In addition, it indirectly affects the definition of a "transit priority area" (TPA) as "an area within one-half mile of a major transit stop that is existing or planned" as per SB 743 (2013).
On September 22, 2024, Newsom signed AB 2712, also drafted by Friedman, into law, prohibiting the city of Los Angeles from issuing preferential parking permits to residents of new developments which are exempt from parking mandates under AB 2097 unless the city provides a written application for hardship.
Several California cities have passed legislation to repeal parking mandates beyond the scope of AB 2097 and its amendments, both before and after AB 2097's passage: