BILL ANALYSIS
AB 289
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Mike Eng, Chair
AB 289 (Galgiani) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
SUBJECT : California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA):
California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) exemption for
grade separation projects
SUMMARY : Specifies that the current CEQA exemption for
reconstructing an existing railroad grade separation project or
eliminating existing at-grade roadway/railroad crossings also
extend to those similar reconstruction or elimination projects
that are a component of the California high-speed rail system.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Pursuant to CEQA, requires a lead agency, as defined, to
prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion
of, an environmental impact report on a project that it
proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant
effect on the environment, or to adopt a negative declaration
if it finds that the project will not have a significant
effect, unless the project has a specific exemption.
2)Exempts from CEQA requirements any railroad grade separation
project that eliminates an existing grade crossing or which
reconstructs an existing grade separation.
3)Exempts projects for the institution or increase of passenger
or commuter services on rail or highway rights-of-way already
in use, including modernization of existing stations and
parking facilities.
4)Establishes the Authority and charges it with the planning,
designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining a
state-of-the-art high-speed train system for California
pursuant to AB 1420 (Kopp), Chapter 796, Statutes of 1996.
5)Enacts the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act
for the 21st Century (Bond Act). The Bond Act, approved as
Proposition 1A in November 2008, provides $9.95 billion in
general obligation bond authority to fund the planning and
construction of a high-speed passenger train system and
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complementary improvements to other specified rail systems in
the state.
6)Authorizes, through enactment of the federal American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the recently enacted federal
economic stimulus package), $8 billion for high-speed rail
passenger services throughout the nation. Also, the federal
stimulus package provides additional intercity and commuter
rail passenger discretionary funding that potentially could
benefit the state.
7)Authorizes, under Proposition 1B, as approved by the voters in
November 2006, $250 million to be available to the California
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) upon appropriation by
the Legislature for completion of high-priority grade
separation projects and railroad crossing safety improvements.
Of the $250 million, $100 million of these bond funds are
authorized for projects subject to the consultation and
coordination with the Authority.
8)Requests the Governor to establish the High-Speed Rail
Commission pursuant to SCR 6 (Kopp, Resolution Chapter 56,
Statutes of 1993). That entity was created but superceded by
the Authority in 1996.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Background : A grade separation is defined in current law as a
structure that separates a vehicular roadway from railroad
tracks. Currently, the reconstruction of an existing grade
separation is statutorily exempt from the CEQA. Furthermore,
the elimination of an existing at-grade highway/railroad
intersection is also exempt from CEQA, the state's environmental
full public information disclosure law. Grade separation
projects serve a public purpose of reducing the number of
serious or fatal traffic collisions between vehicles and rail
cars by eliminating dangerous at-grade crossings by ensuring
that the railroad tracks and roadway no longer intersect and
operate at different elevations, or grade.
According to the author, "the high-speed train (HST) project and
system will be completely grade separated and will include the
construction or reconstruction of approximately 600 railroad
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grade separations, most of which will be located within or
adjacent to existing railroad rights-of way. At many of these
grade separations, the HST project will share or abut track or
rail right-of-way with existing rail services. Under CEQA, lead
agencies must prepare, or have prepared, and certify an
environmental impact report on any project that may have a
significant impact on the environment. Currently, the Public
Resources Code provides numerous exemptions from the CEQA,
specifically including railroad grade separation projects that
eliminate existing grade crossings or that reconstruct an
existing grade separation. What is ambiguous is whether the
grade separations' construction or reconstruction by the
Authority are covered by the existing CEQA exemption for grade
separation reconstruction and grade crossing elimination?. The
Authority and its local partners will construct dozens and
ultimately hundreds of railroad grade separations. These grade
separations initially will be used to improve existing services
while HST projects segments are completed?AB 289 merely
clarifies that a railroad grade separation project that is a
component of the California high-speed train system is not
subject to CEQA if the project eliminates an existing railroad
grade crossing or reconstructs an existing railroad grade
separation."
Arguments in support of the bill :
1)Existing grade separations that are in need of reconstruction
or existing at-grade roadway/railroad crossings that pose a
safety issue and need elimination are currently exempt from
CEQA. This bill would specifically provide that grade
separation projects undertaken by the Authority would also be
exempt from CEQA.
2)This bill will streamline CEQA activities of the Authority for
projects that it undertakes using California-only funds, such
as through the use of state Bond Act funding pursuant to
Proposition 1A (see above Existing Law section). The
Authority, when undertaking projects utilizing the CEQA
exemption as proposed to be afforded by this bill, will still
be required to obtain other state and federal environmental
permits and National Environmental Policy Act clearances as
may be necessary depending on the source(s) of public funding.
3)Any consideration to extend this exemption to any future
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right-of-way purchase or future grade separation project where
no current railroad line exists would be overly broad and
inconsistent with the bill's provisions, especially as the
Authority intends to eventually build or reconstruct over 600
grade separation projects.
Arguments against the bill :
1)The Planning and Conservation League contends that "The
purpose of CEQA is to ensure any environmental impacts caused
by a project are understood and mitigated to the extent
feasible. Also, the CEQA process is an important way for
local residents to understand a project and participate in the
decisions that affect their communities. CEQA is our state's
most powerful tool to help protect communities from
unnecessary and harmful impacts. For this reason, the
Planning and Conservation League takes any amendments to CEQA
very seriously and is especially cautious when exemptions are
sought?We believe that exempting grade separation projects
from CEQA is unwarranted. If these projects will have minimal
or no environmental effect, the CEQA process will reveal that
and they will be fast-tracked. However, if there are impacts,
those impacts must be addressed."
2)The CEQA grade separation exemption was established in 1982 in
consideration of railroad lines that were in place and either
were in need of separation from an at-grade roadway or the
railroad line that was grade separated was in need of
reconstruction. At that time, no high-speed rail system
infrastructure was in place that would require the use of the
exemption. Accordingly, one could contend that the exemption
contemplated at that time applied primarily to rail freight
lines and not high-speed rail infrastructure. Adding more
weight to this contention, the state did not establish the
High-Speed Rail Commission or Authority until after the rail
grade separation/crossing CEQA exemption was enacted into law,
more than a decade later.
3)Grade separation projects generally range from $50 million to
over $250 million, depending on the amount of right-of-way to
be purchased and its location, as well as the project scope
(according to the Authority, the main trunkline will be
double-tracked for the most part). Allowing a large number of
grade separation projects to be built (over 600 projects
estimated by the Authority) in the absence of a full
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environmental assessment could predetermine the precise
high-speed rail project alignment as millions of dollars could
potentially be spent without full public scrutiny or
comprehensive project review, especially as the grade
separation project could be constructed a couple years before
adoption of the segment-specific environmental impact report.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
Planning and Conservation League
Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093