BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 226
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Date of Hearing: August 22, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
SB 226 (Simitian) - As Amended: August 17, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 36-0 (not relevant)
SUBJECT : Environmental quality
SUMMARY : Establishes exemptions and limits to environmental
review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for
specified projects.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility for
carrying out or approving a proposed project to prepare a
negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or
environmental impact report (EIR) for this action, unless the
project is exempt from CEQA (CEQA includes various statutory
exemptions, as well as categorical exemptions in the CEQA
guidelines).
2)Requires the Office of Planning and Research and the Natural
Resources Agency to prepare, adopt and periodically update
CEQA guidelines, including identifying classes of projects
determined to have no significant effect on the environment
and therefore eligible for a categorical exemption, as well as
guidelines for the mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions.
3)Exempts from CEQA specified residential housing projects which
meet criteria established to ensure the project does not have
a significant effect on the environment, including urban
infill housing projects not more than 100 units on a site not
more than four acres in size which is within one-half mile of
a major transit stop. (SB 1925 (Sher), Chapter 1039, Statutes
of 2002)
4)Requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to include
a sustainable communities strategy (SCS), as defined, in their
regional transportation plans, or an alternative planning
strategy (APS), for the purpose of reducing GHG emissions,
aligns planning for transportation and housing, and creates
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specified incentives for the implementation of the strategies,
including CEQA exemption or abbreviated review for residential
or mixed-use residential "transit priority projects" if the
project is consistent with the use designation, density,
building intensity, and applicable policies specified for the
project area in either an approved SCS or APS. (SB 375
(Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008)
5)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. 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.
THIS BILL :
1)Exempts from CEQA review the installation of a "solar energy
system" on the roof of an existing building. "Solar energy
system" includes solar electric (photovoltaic) and solar hot
water projects, and associated equipment not located on the
roof, including connections to the electric grid adjacent to
the parcel, but excludes a substation. (Section 3)
2)Requires the Natural Resources Secretary, by March 1, 2012, to
amend the CEQA guidelines to exempt from CEQA review solar
photovoltaic projects not more than 10 megawatts/100 acres
located on disturbed agricultural lands, as defined. Eligible
lands must have been used for agricultural production for at
least five years and determined by a qualified biologist to
have no significant habitat value. Projects may not be
located on prime farmland or other farmland designated as
important farmlands by the Department of Conservation. This
provision sunsets January 1, 2015. (Section 6)
3)Provides that a project's greenhouse gas emissions shall not
by itself cause the project to be ineligible for a categorical
exemption from CEQA review if the project complies with
regulations adopted to implement related statewide, regional,
or local plans as provided in the CEQA guidelines. (Section
5)
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4)Establishes interim abbreviated CEQA review procedures for
specified "transit proximity projects," defined as urban
residential mixed-use projects with housing density of at
least 20 units per acre located within one quarter mile of a
transit stop or corridor. The abbreviated procedures permit
transit proximity projects to be reviewed via a sustainable
communities environmental assessment (SCEA) or an
environmental impact report (EIR) where consideration of
cumulative effects and alternatives to the project are
limited. This provision applies only to projects within an
MPO, ceases to apply once that MPO has adopted a SCS under SB
375, and sunsets January 1, 2015. (Sections 1 and 7)
5)Provides that CEQA does not require a public agency to
consider written materials submitted after the close of the
public comment period, with specified exceptions for materials
addressing new information released after the close of the
public comment period, and permits a lead agency to elect to
ignore written materials submitted after the close of the
public comment period and provides that such material shall
not be raised in judicial review. This provision sunsets
January 1, 2016. (Section 8)
6)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 CEQA for a project of statewide, regional or
area-wide significance, and authorize the city or county to
submit its comments on the proposed general plan action at the
CEQA scoping meeting. (Sections 2 and 4)
7)Contains an urgency clause allowing the bill to take effect
immediately upon enactment. (Section 10)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
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COMMENTS :
1)Background. CEQA provides a process for evaluating the
environmental effects of applicable projects undertaken or
approved by public agencies. If a project is not exempt from
CEQA, an initial study is prepared to determine whether the
project may have a significant effect on the environment. If
the initial study shows that there would not be a significant
effect on the environment, the lead agency must prepare a
negative declaration. If the initial study shows that the
project may have a significant effect on the environment, the
lead agency must prepare an EIR. A lead agency must base its
determination of significant effects on substantial evidence.
Generally, an EIR must accurately describe the proposed
project, identify and analyze each significant environmental
impact expected to result from the proposed project, identify
mitigation measures to reduce those impacts to the extent
feasible, and evaluate a range of reasonable alternatives to
the proposed project. Prior to approving any project that has
received environmental review, an agency must make certain
findings. If mitigation measures are required or incorporated
into a project, the agency must adopt a reporting or
monitoring program to ensure compliance with those measures.
According to the author, SB 226 responds to concerns relating
to scoping meetings for certain projects, use of categorical
exemptions for projects resulting in greenhouse gas emissions,
environmental review for infill and solar projects, and late
public comments on environmental documents.
2)Rooftops, plus? In most cases, installation of solar panels
or hot water systems on rooftops of existing buildings would
not be subject to CEQA, and the committee has not identified
any instance where application of CEQA has been a burden or
impediment to rooftop solar projects. As it relates to
rooftop solar energy systems and associated ground equipment
inside or adjacent to the building, the exemption in this bill
is reasonable, though arguably unnecessary. However, the
author and the committee may wish to consider whether the bill
should more clearly define the extent to which it applies to
off-site wires connecting the project to the electric grid so
that the exemption doesn't include new transmission lines and
towers located on another property.
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3)Disturbed lands. By excluding farmland designated by the
Department of Conservation as "important," this exemption
appears limited to a very small minority of agricultural lands
that have been cultivated at some point in the past, but not
irrigated for at least several years. Additional conditions,
such as limits on project size and acreage, requiring a
biologist's determination that the land has no significant
habitat value, and prohibiting repeated uses of the exemption
in the same vicinity or ownership, further limit the
application of the exemption. However, some of these
conditions seem arbitrary and have little or nothing to do
with CEQA's purposes. The author and the committee may wish
to consider letting the absence of significant effects be the
standard and instead direct the Secretary to identify a class
of solar projects on disturbed agricultural lands that would
be eligible for a categorical exemption based on a
determination that the class of projects will not have a
significant effect on the environment.
4)Prioritizing proximity. This bill's "transit proximity
project" provision advances some of the CEQA streamlining
available under SB 375 so that it could apply in the next
couple years to urban regions within an MPO. Eligibility is
limited to dense (20 units/acre) residential projects very
near (1/4 mile) transit. In opposition, developers contend
that the combination of requiring projects to be within 1/4
mile of a major transit stop or high-quality transit corridor
and requiring the project to incorporate all mitigation
measures or best practices recommended by the local air
district make the provision unusable. They cite mitigation
measures recommended by the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District that recommend projects be located away from roadway
to protect residents from air pollution. However, it appears
the bill's conditions can be reconciled with the BAAQMD
standards so that this provision could be used to some extent
for projects in the Bay Area and other urban regions.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
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American Council of Engineering Companies
California Building Industry Association
California Business Properties Association
California Chamber of Commerce
California Farm Bureau Federation (prior version)
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092