The bill creates a new chapter in Title 49 RCW establishing notice, meeting, and related requirements when certain grocery establishments intend to close permanently. Covered employers generally must provide at least four months’ written notice to the city council, county council or commission, the local health department, state legislative officials in the district, and the attorney general, and must post prominent written notices at all public entries. During the notice period the employer must, upon reasonable request, meet and work in good faith with local governments, the local health department, collective bargaining organizations (if applicable), state officials, and the attorney general’s office to pursue alternatives to closure; attending at least one neighborhood-organized community meeting and one meeting with a collective bargaining organization may satisfy the meeting requirement. The act defines terms including grocery establishment (size thresholds and exclusions), food desert, customer, employee, employer, neighborhood organization, rural area, and state official. The bill also makes private agreements that impose negative use restrictions on real property to prohibit or restrict grocery establishment uses against public policy, void, and unenforceable, subject to specified exceptions. It authorizes civil enforcement: the attorney general may bring civil proceedings for injunctive and monetary relief, including civil penalties, and collective bargaining organizations or the city attorney/county prosecuting attorney may bring civil actions for injunctive or declaratory relief or a writ of mandamus; courts may award reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs to prevailing plaintiffs. The attorney general’s enforcement authority over section 7 is made through chapter 19.86 RCW, and the act includes a severability clause. Section 8 allows a city, town, or county, on written request showing extenuating circumstances and good cause, to extend certain distance, time, and term limits referenced in section 7 (including extending a distance limit to no more than one mile) and lists factors to consider such as maintaining or increasing local food access and financing or construction needs. The bill states that the new sections are in addition to existing notice or other obligations under chapter 49.45 RCW and other law. Important details are missing from the provided text: section 7 is incomplete in these extracts (some subsections are cut off), the exact new RCW chapter number is not specified, monetary penalty amounts and detailed enforcement procedures are not provided, and no effective date or other implementation dates are included.

If enacted, large grocery owners would generally have to give at least four months’ written notice before permanently closing a store, notify city and county councils, the local health department, a state legislator in the district, and the attorney general, and post prominent public notices; during that notice period they must meet and work in good faith with local officials, health departments, neighborhood groups and unions to try to keep grocery services at the site or find alternatives. The law also voids private deed restrictions that bar grocery uses (with narrow relocation conditions and time limits), and gives the attorney general, affected unions, and local prosecutors the power to sue for injunctions, monetary relief and civil penalties if the notice or meeting rules are ignored; local governments can grant extensions of distance and time limits for good cause, including to preserve food access or allow financing and construction. The groups most affected are grocery employers (new administrative steps, public posting, potential litigation risk and limits on future property use), local governments, health departments, neighborhood organizations and unions (more formal roles and likely staff time to participate), and attorneys general and local prosecutors (new enforcement work). The bill leaves key implementation details unclear in the provided text—specific penalty amounts, some section 7 baseline limits, procedural timelines, and the effective date are not included—so exact costs and enforcement processes are uncertain.