BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 226
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          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         
           
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          |Ayes:|Chesbro, Knight,          |Ayes:|Smyth, Skinner, Bradford  |
          |     |Brownley, Dickinson,      |     |Campos, Davis, Gordon,    |
          |     |Grove, Halderman,         |     |Hueso, Knight, Norby      |
          |     |Huffman, Monning, Skinner |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
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           APPROPRIATIONS      16-0                                        
           
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          |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey,          |     |                          |
          |     |Blumenfield, Bradford,    |     |                          |
          |     |Charles Calderon, Campos, |     |                          |
          |     |Donnelly, Gatto, Hall,    |     |                          |
          |     |Hill, Lara, Mitchell,     |     |                          |
          |     |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio,  |     |                          |
          |     |Wagner                    |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
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           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
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             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
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          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 


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