BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 226 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 226 (Simitian) As Introduced February 9, 2011 2/3 vote. Urgency SENATE VOTE :36-0 NATURAL RESOURCES 9-0 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 9-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Chesbro, Knight, |Ayes:|Smyth, Skinner, Bradford | | |Brownley, Dickinson, | |Campos, Davis, Gordon, | | |Grove, Halderman, | |Hueso, Knight, Norby | | |Huffman, Monning, Skinner | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- APPROPRIATIONS 16-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, | | | | |Blumenfield, Bradford, | | | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, | | | | |Donnelly, Gatto, Hall, | | | | |Hill, Lara, Mitchell, | | | | |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio, | | | | |Wagner | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Authorizes referral of a proposed action to adopt or substantially amend a general plan to an adjacent city or county to be conducted concurrently with the scoping meeting required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for a project of statewide, regional or area-wide significance, and authorizes the city or county to submit its comments on the proposed general plan action at the CEQA scoping meeting. Contains an urgency clause, allowing this bill to take effect immediately upon enactment. EXISTING LAW : 1)Under CEQA: SB 226 Page 2 a) Requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility for carrying out or approving a proposed discretionary project to prepare a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or environmental impact report (EIR) for this action, unless the project is exempt from CEQA; and, b) Requires a lead agency to call at least one scoping meeting for a proposed project of statewide, regional, or area-wide significance. Notice of at least one scoping meeting must be provided to certain entities, including a county or city bordering a county or city within which the project is located. 2)Under Planning and Zoning Law, requires a planning agency to refer a proposed action to adopt or substantially amend a general plan to certain entities for comment, including a city or county within or abutting the area covered by the proposal, prior to legislative body's action on that general plan. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, negligible state costs, if any. COMMENTS : According to the CEQA guidelines, early consultation "solves many potential problems that would arise in more serious forms later in the review process." The guidelines also provide that scoping "has been helpful to agencies in identifying the range of actions, alternatives, mitigation measures, and significant effects to be analyzed in depth in an EIR and in eliminating from detailed study issues found not to be important." The guidelines further note that scoping "has been found to be an effective way to bring together and resolve the concerns of affected federal, state, and local agencies, the proponent of the action, and other interested persons including those who might not be in accord with the action on environmental grounds." This bill revises the CEQA scoping process to enable the referral of a proposed action to adopt or substantially amend a general plan to a city or county, as required under Planning and Zoning Law, to be conducted concurrently with the scoping meeting under CEQA. This bill also authorizes the city or county to submit its comments at the scoping meeting. SB 226 Page 3 According to the author, "SB 226 streamlines the CEQA process for adopting or amending a general plan by allowing the general plan interagency referral process under Planning and Zoning Law to occur during the CEQA scoping process. This should also improve the planning and environmental review process so comments and responses can occur at the same meeting." Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN: 0001612