Grocery stores could reopen on land stuck in old covenants

A grocery store can disappear from a neighborhood long before the shelves do, if a private covenant keeps the land from ever being used for food retail again. In California, AB 1857 would try to remove that kind of hidden barrier by making certain restrictions on grocery stores and supermarkets void and unenforceable against an interested party.

Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry’s bill would add Section 714.8 to the Civil Code. The point is not to redraw zoning maps, but to clear away private language in property records that can block a store even when the site itself is otherwise usable.

The veto buried in the paperwork

AB 1857 would reach beyond one kind of document. It covers covenants, restrictions or conditions in deeds, contracts, security instruments, leases and other instruments affecting real property. If the language effectively prohibits or restricts a grocery store or supermarket, the restriction would not stand against the party trying to use the property.

The bill is aimed at the kind of quiet veto that can linger after a former store closes or a property changes hands. Once that restriction is gone, the space can be treated like other commercially useful land instead of staying locked in place by old paper limits.

A familiar legal tool, turned toward food access

California already voids some property restrictions that interfere with other uses, including solar energy systems and accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. AB 1857 would extend that same legal logic to food retail, treating grocery access as another part of daily life that can be shaped by private covenants long after the original deal is forgotten.

For neighborhoods where residents have to travel farther than they should for basic food shopping, that matters. Available vote records show the bill advanced without recorded no votes.

• It would make certain anti-grocery restrictions unenforceable.
• The bill does not change zoning rules.
• It could open up sites that were technically available but privately blocked.