AB 671: How California's New Restaurant Permit Fast-Track Works

What does AB 671 actually change?

AB 671 lets restaurants skip the usual wait for a city plan-check reviewer by having a licensed architect or engineer certify that interior remodel plans already meet code. The building department then has 20 business days to approve or deny the application instead of the open-ended queue that can run months in a busy city.

Governor Newsom signed AB 671 on October 9, 2025, and it took effect January 1, 2026. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks authored it specifically to address how long restaurants were waiting on building permits for routine tenant improvements.

Which projects actually qualify?

This is the part that gets oversold. AB 671 only covers interior tenant improvements, things like a new kitchen layout, equipment swaps, or plumbing and structural changes inside a space you already occupy. It doesn’t apply to new ground-up construction or exterior work like a patio addition or a new building shell.

It also only applies to retail food establishments that serve food directly to consumers, and it specifically excludes large chain “fast food restaurants” as defined under the state’s fast-food council law (Labor Code 1474). So a local pizza place doing a kitchen remodel qualifies; a national chain location covered by that definition doesn’t.

One more limit worth knowing before you count on this: the certifier can sign off on the building permit, but if your project also triggers a California Retail Food Code health department plan review, like opening in a brand-new shell space, that review still has to happen separately. AB 671 speeds up the building department step, not the health department one.

Who can actually certify your plans?

Not just any contractor. A “qualified professional certifier” under AB 671 has to be a licensed architect or engineer with at least five years of experience in commercial building design or plan review, and they’re required to carry professional liability insurance. If they certify plans negligently or falsely, they’re personally liable for resulting damages and can face discipline from the California Architects Board or the Board for Professional Engineers.

In practice, this means you need to hire that architect or engineer as part of your remodel budget anyway, then ask specifically whether they’re set up to use the AB 671 certification path in your jurisdiction.

Does every California city offer this yet?

Rollout is happening city by city and county by county, not as one statewide system. Los Angeles County runs a Building Plan Self-Certification Pilot Program; Los Angeles City, San Diego, and Santa Barbara have each published their own certifier affidavit forms. If your restaurant is elsewhere in the state, call your local building department and ask directly whether they’ve implemented an AB 671 certification path yet, since not every jurisdiction has rolled one out on the same timeline.

A quick checklist before you plan around this

• Is your project an interior remodel, not new construction or an exterior addition?
• Are you an independent restaurant or small chain, not a covered fast-food chain location?
• Does your project also need health department plan review, which this doesn’t speed up?
• Has your city or county actually implemented an AB 671 certification program yet?
• Have you asked your architect or engineer whether they’re a qualified certifier under the law?

If you’re remodeling a kitchen or changing your floor plan, that’s also the right moment to plan for your point-of-sale and card terminal wiring before the walls close up (yanpayments.com/hardware), rather than retrofitting it afterward.

This is general information about a new state law, not legal advice. Talk to your architect, contractor, or local building department about how AB 671 applies to your specific remodel.

Sources: LegiScan AB 671 bill text; City of San Diego AB 671 program page; LA County Public Works Building Code Manual 106.4; Santa Barbara Accelerated Restaurant Building Plan Approval Program.