Reviewed by Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM — Associate Broker · Commercial Division · DRE #01422904
Last updated: October 4, 2026
What Is the AB 98 Warehouse Law in California?
The AB 98 warehouse law is California’s set of statewide design, siting and truck-route standards for proposed new or expanded warehouses. Signed September 29, 2024 and amended by SB 415 in 2025, it can require loading-bay setbacks of 300 or 500 feet from nearby homes, schools and other sensitive receptors, landscaped buffers and truck routing, beginning January 1, 2026. Confirm how this affects your site before you commit to one; see our guide to warehouse site selection.
This California warehouse law is Chapter 931, Statutes of 2024. It added a new Government Code chapter (Section 65098 and following), a general-plan truck-route section (Section 65302.02) and two Health and Safety Code air-quality sections. The 2025 cleanup bill, SB 415 (Chapter 316, Statutes of 2025), rewrote much of it, so summaries of the 2024 text alone are out of date. For the Inland Empire, it matters directly: it names a “warehouse concentration region” around the core logistics cities.
Not legal advice. Apex Real Estate Services is not a law firm. This article summarizes the statute for general information only. Confirm how AB 98 applies to a specific site with a California land-use attorney and your city or county planning department.
Key Takeaways
- The standards apply to proposed new or expanded warehouses beginning January 1, 2026.
- The main trigger is a loading bay within 900 feet of a sensitive receptor: 300 feet of setback for industrial-zoned projects of 250,000 SF or more, 500 feet on land not zoned industrial.
- Every new tenant in a covered building triggers a revised truck routing plan before its business license.
- Region cities and counties had to add truck routes to their circulation element by January 1, 2026.
- SB 415 is the only amendment shown on leginfo as of September 2026.
Which Warehouses Does AB 98 Apply To?
AB 98 applies to a “logistics use development”: the law’s term for a warehouse building where heavy-duty trucks primarily move the goods and retail customers are not the main onsite buyers. It reaches new projects and expansions, not existing buildings operating unchanged.
- Heavy-duty trucks. Class 7 (26,001 to 33,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating) and Class 8 (over 33,000 pounds).
- Carve-outs. Public-facing food or household-goods sellers, rail-served buildings, Strategic Intermodal Facilities, and agricultural buildings operated 90 consecutive days or less a year.
- Expansion. Growth of 20% or more of existing square footage, excluding office space.
- Sensitive receptor. Homes, schools, daycares, public parks and playgrounds mainly used by children, nursing and long-term care facilities, and hospitals.
The chapter does not apply to projects whose local entitlement process began before September 30, 2024, or that won local approval before it took effect. Buildings existing on September 30, 2024 are not subject to the loading-bay distance rules if a new sensitive receptor is later built nearby. Section 65098.1.5’s protections from the loading-bay distance rules are waived if no construction activity occurs within five years of entitlement approvals.
For yard owners: the definition is written around a “building.” That does not settle whether an industrial outdoor storage site (IOS) is covered, so confirm with counsel and planning staff.
Setbacks and buffersWhat Are the AB 98 Setbacks?
The AB 98 setbacks depend on zoning, size and distance: 300 feet for large industrial-zoned projects and 500 feet on land not zoned industrial, measured straight-line from the nearest sensitive receptor’s property line to the nearest loading-bay opening. Section 65098.1 sorts projects into four scenarios.
| Scenario (§65098.1) | Size | Loading-bay setback | Design package | Buffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (a) Industrial-zoned, loading bay within 900 ft of a sensitive receptor | 250,000 SF or more | 300 ft minimum | Tier 1 21st century | 50 ft |
| (b) Not zoned industrial or needing rezoning, loading bay within 900 ft | Any size | 500 ft minimum | Tier 1 at 250,000 SF or more; 21st century if smaller | 100 ft |
| (c) Not zoned industrial or needing rezoning, in the warehouse concentration region | Any size | 500 ft minimum | Same package as (b) | 100 ft |
| (d) Industrial-zoned, loading bay within 900 ft | Under 250,000 SF | No minimum distance listed | Title 24 energy and green-code items, cold-storage conduits, efficient HVAC | 50 ft |
Note that subdivision (c) does not repeat the “within 900 feet” phrase used in (a), (b) and (d); how it reads on a given parcel is a question for counsel. The setback and the buffer are separate measurements.
For new projects within 900 feet of a sensitive receptor, the buffer is a 50- or 100-foot strip from the receptor’s property line with a wall or berm at least 10 feet high, drought-tolerant landscaping, and two rows of evergreen trees (36-inch box minimum, 40 feet on center at most, no palms). Truck-court gates must sit behind at least 50 feet of stacking depth, plus 70 feet for every 20 loading bays beyond 50, to the extent feasible.
Building designWhat Design Features Must New Warehouses Include?
Covered projects must include one of two statutory packages: “21st century warehouse” elements, or the stricter “Tier 1” elements at 250,000 SF and up.
| Element | 21st century warehouse | Tier 1 21st century warehouse |
|---|---|---|
| Energy code | Title 24 and CALGreen rules in effect at building permit: solar with battery storage, cool roof, truck and car EV readiness | Same |
| Lighting | Skylights in at least 1% of roof area, or equivalent LED | Same |
| Power and metering | High-efficiency HVAC; cold-storage bay hookups | Adds microgrid-ready switchgear and smart-metering readiness |
| Car parking | Per the energy and green-building codes | 50% of spaces with EV conduit; 10% with installed chargers |
| Zero-emission forklifts | By January 1, 2030 | By January 1, 2028 |
Sites must also post three-minute anti-idling signs for heavy-duty trucks at entrances and loading bays. Cities and counties cannot adopt rules that physically preclude required features, but they keep the power to deny a warehouse project altogether.
Roads and routingWhere Can Warehouses Be Sited? AB 98 Truck Routes
New warehouses must sit on arterial roads, collector roads, major thoroughfares, or local roads that predominantly serve commercial, agricultural or industrial uses, meaning more than 50% of properties fronting the road within 1,000 feet of the truck entrances carry those designations. A waiver is possible where those roads are impractical.
Before a certificate of occupancy, the operator submits a truck routing plan to the planning director; a revised plan is due before a business license is issued for any new tenant. That makes routing a leasing step for tenant representation and for landlord representation on a re-tenanting.
Region cities and counties had to add truck routes to their general-plan circulation element by January 1, 2026; from January 1, 2028 every proposed logistics use development must be reachable via arterial roads, major thoroughfares or qualifying local roads. A city or county a court finds in violation faces civil penalties of up to $50,000 every six months until cured. Jurisdictions outside the region adopt a truck-route ordinance by January 1, 2028, or January 1, 2030 for cities of 50,000 people or fewer and counties of 100,000 or fewer.
The 2025 cleanupWhat Did SB 415 Change About the AB 98 Warehouse Law?
SB 415, approved October 3, 2025, amended most of the chapter effective January 1, 2026. The main SB 415 warehouse changes:
- Renamed “logistics use” to “logistics use development” and added the short-season agricultural exclusion.
- Limited the county part of the region to unincorporated Riverside and San Bernardino County land.
- Let a driveway with a dedicated heavy-duty truck lane count as a separate truck entrance.
- Replaced the non-region circulation-element duty with a separate ordinance due in 2028 or 2030.
- Required truck-route enforcement training to be offered to local law enforcement by January 1, 2027.
As of September 2026, SB 415 is the only amendment shown on leginfo.
The regionWhich Inland Empire Cities Are in the Warehouse Concentration Region?
The region is the unincorporated areas of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties plus 12 cities: Chino, Colton, Fontana, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Ontario, Perris, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, Riverside and San Bernardino. Region status controls subdivision (c) and the January 1, 2026 circulation-element deadline.
Beaumont, Corona, Temecula and Victorville are not on the list, but projects there still follow the statewide rules in subdivisions (a), (b) and (d). Our Beaumont commercial development guide covers that local process.
Market impactHow Could AB 98 Affect Inland Empire Owners and Tenants?
AB 98 adds state requirements to a market that was already building less. No source yet measures its effect, so read what follows as possibilities.
Local evidence · CoStar, Inland Empire Industrial Market Report, Q3 2026
The construction pipeline has thinned substantially: 14.0 million SF was underway as of 2026Q3, down from a 45.7 million SF high-water mark in 2022, and starts slowed to 9 million SF in 2025, which CoStar attributes to weaker leasing prospects, declining rent potential and tighter lending. Vacancy measured 8.7% and availability 12.5%, a 15-year high. Availability ran at 18% in 250,000–500,000 SF buildings but under 7% in buildings smaller than 50,000 SF. See how that availability breaks down by submarket in our Inland Empire warehouse availability guide.
It also lands on local resistance: CoStar notes temporary industrial moratoriums in several Inland Empire cities in recent years and reports that Beaumont, Moreno Valley and Fontana have rejected some recent industrial proposals. Construction remains concentrated in the Airport Area Submarket cities of Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, all inside the region. See our Inland Empire industrial market page and our quarterly market reports.
- Existing-building owners. Shielded from setback rules when new receptors arrive, conforming existing product could gain appeal. Compare what warehouse space costs in the Inland Empire.
- Land owners and developers. Industrial land more than 900 feet from sensitive receptors avoids the (a), (b) and (d) packages but still faces road-siting, gate, signage and truck-routing rules, which could affect how Inland Empire industrial land prices. Demolishing housing occupied in the last 10 years brings two-for-one affordable replacement and 12 months’ rent for displaced tenants.
- Tenants and owner-users. Build the revised routing plan into move-in timing, and check AB 98 status before buying a warehouse with an SBA 504 loan.
Subject to funding, the South Coast AQMD is to deploy mobile air monitoring near operating warehouses in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties from January 1, 2026 to January 1, 2032, with an interim report by January 1, 2028 to assess the effectiveness of setbacks.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sept 30, 2024 | Entitlement and existing-building cutoff |
| Jan 1, 2026 | Standards apply; region circulation-element deadline |
| Jan 1, 2027 | Truck-route enforcement training available |
| Jan 1, 2028 | Road-access rule; non-region ordinances; AQMD interim report; Tier 1 zero-emission forklifts |
| Jan 1, 2030 | Smaller-jurisdiction ordinances; 21st century zero-emission forklifts |
AB 98 Warehouse Law: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the AB 98 warehouse law in California?
AB 98 is California’s 2024 law setting statewide design, siting and truck-route standards for proposed new or expanded warehouses, which it calls logistics use developments. SB 415 amended it in 2025.
When did AB 98 take effect?
AB 98 was signed on September 29, 2024, and leginfo shows its code sections effective January 1, 2025. Its design and siting standards apply to proposed new or expanded projects beginning January 1, 2026, when the SB 415 amendments also took effect.
How far must a warehouse loading bay be from homes under AB 98?
When a loading bay is within 900 feet of a sensitive receptor, industrial-zoned projects of 250,000 square feet or more need at least 300 feet, and projects on land not zoned industrial need at least 500 feet, measured straight-line from the receptor’s property line.
Does AB 98 apply to existing warehouses?
The standards apply to proposed new or expanded projects; an expansion is growth of 20% or more of existing square footage. Buildings existing on September 30, 2024 are not subject to the loading-bay distance rules if a new sensitive receptor is later built nearby.
What did SB 415 change about AB 98?
SB 415, signed October 3, 2025, renamed the covered use “logistics use development,” limited the county part of the region to unincorporated areas, and gave jurisdictions outside the region a 2028 or 2030 truck-route ordinance deadline.
Which Inland Empire cities are in the warehouse concentration region?
Chino, Colton, Fontana, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Ontario, Perris, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, Riverside and San Bernardino, plus the unincorporated areas of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.
Does a new tenant in an AB 98 warehouse need a new truck routing plan?
Yes. A revised truck routing plan must go to the planning director before a business license is issued for any new tenant of the property.
Evaluating a site or lease under AB 98?
Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM, brings more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience to underwriting Inland Empire warehouse sites, pricing land and negotiating leases. We handle the market side; your attorney handles the legal read.
Call Robert: (951) 977-3251Or request a free CRE consult with the form below.
Sources: California Legislature · AB 98, chaptered text · September 29, 2024 · SB 415, chaptered text · October 3, 2025 · Government Code Chapter 2.8, §65302.02 and Health and Safety Code §40458.5, current text read September 23, 2026 · CoStar · Inland Empire Industrial Market Report · Q3 2026, dated September 30, 2026. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice.
Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM · Associate Broker · Commercial Division · DRE #01422904 · Apex Real Estate Services · 3750 E. Florida Ave Suite A, Hemet, CA 92544 · (951) 977-3251 · robert@apex-res.com. Last updated: October 4, 2026.