BILL NUMBER: AB 209	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Ammiano

                        JANUARY 31, 2011

   An act to amend Section 21089 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to environmental quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 209, as introduced, Ammiano. Environment: CEQA: lead agency:
documents.
   The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead
agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify
the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) 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 that effect. CEQA also requires
a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a
project that may have a significant effect on the environment if
revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and
there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would
have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA authorizes a lead
agency to charge and collect a reasonable fee from a person proposing
a project that is subject to CEQA to recover the estimated costs
incurred by the lead agency in conducting the environmental review.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstative changes in those
provisions authorizing a lead agency to charge and collect a
reasonable fee from a person proposing a project subject to CEQA.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 21089 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
   21089.  (a) A lead agency may charge and collect a reasonable fee
from a person proposing a project subject to this division in order
to recover the estimated costs incurred by the lead agency in
preparing a negative declaration or an environmental impact report
for the project and for procedures necessary to comply with this
division on the project. Litigation expenses, costs, and fees
incurred in actions alleging noncompliance with this division under
Section 21167 are not recoverable under this section.
   (b) The Department of Fish and Game may charge and collect filing
fees, as provided in Section 711.4 of the Fish and Game Code.
Notwithstanding Section 21080.1, a finding required under Section
21081, or a project approved under a certified regulatory program
authorized pursuant to Section 21080.5 is not operative, vested, or
final until the filing fees required pursuant to Section 711.4 of the
Fish and Game Code are paid.
   (c) (1)  (A)    A public agency may charge and
collect a reasonable fee from members of the public for a copy of an
environmental document not to exceed the cost of reproducing the
environmental document.  A 
    (B)     A  public agency may provide
the environmental document in an electronic format as 
provided   prescribed  pursuant to Section 6253.9
of the Government Code.
   (2) For purposes of this subdivision, "environmental document"
means an initial study, negative declaration, mitigated negative
declaration, draft and final environmental impact report, a document
prepared as a substitute for an environmental impact report, negative
declaration, or mitigated negative declaration under a program
certified pursuant to Section 21080.5, and a document prepared under
the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. Sec.
4321 et seq.) and used by a state or local agency in the place of
the initial study, negative declaration, mitigated negative
declaration, or an environmental impact report.