Senate Bill 405 provides important protections for property owners with “non-conforming uses” on their property who were forced to abandon their normal activity due to the various state and local COVID-19 restrictions. It also protects the same properties from the impacts of the 2020 Labor Day wildfires. When a property is used in a way that was authorized when the use began, but would no longer be authorized under current law, the use is considered “non-conforming”. For example, a school building that has been used for decades in an area where schools would no longer be allowed under state zoning laws is considered a non-conforming use, and can continue to operate as long as the use isn’t discontinued or abandoned for a certain period of time, usually one year. If a non-conforming use is discontinued or abandoned for more than the allowed time, it is lost, and cannot be restarted. This proved to be a real problem for property owners who had non-conforming uses that could not be conducted due to the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the state or local government, or uses that were lost to the Labor Day wildfires. It is unfair to punish property owners with non-conforming uses on their property by claiming that the use was abandoned, when the sole reason the use was abandoned was because it was prohibited by a COVID-19 shutdown order or it was destroyed in the 2020 wildfires and couldn’t be rebuilt in time to meet the deadline. SB 405 fixes that problem.