BILL NUMBER: AB 1665	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Galgiani

                        FEBRUARY 14, 2012

   An act to amend Section 21080.13 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to environmental quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1665, as introduced, Galgiani. California Environmental Quality
Act: exemption: railroad crossings.
   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 exempts from its requirements railroad grade separation
projects that eliminate an existing grade crossing or reconstruct an
existing grade separation.
   This bill would specify instead that the exemption for a railroad
grade separation project is for the elimination of an existing
at-grade crossing.
   Existing law grants the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) the
authority to regulate railroad crossings, as prescribed.
   This bill would exempt from the CEQA actions or activities taken
by the PUC under its authority to regulate railroad crossings.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 21080.13 of the Public Resources Code is
amended to read:
   21080.13.  This division shall not apply to  any 
 an action or activity taken by the Public Utilities Commission
pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 1201) of Part 1 of
Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code or a  railroad grade
separation project  which   that 
eliminates an existing  grade   at-grade 
crossing or  which  reconstructs an existing grade
separation.