BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 380
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Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 380 (Dickinson) - As Introduced: February 14, 2013
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:6-2
Local Government 7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill establishes uniform procedures for electronic posting
of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documents by
county clerks and the Office of Planning and Research (OPR).
This bill also clarifies that scoping meetings, required to be
held by lead agencies for certain highway projects and other
projects or statewide, regional, or areawide significance, are
public. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires specified CEQA notices to be filed with OPR, and
posted by OPR on a public, online database.
2)Requires notices of project approval by a state agency,
currently required to be filed with OPR, to also be filed with
the county clerk of each county in which the project will be
located. Requires notices of project approval by a local
agency, currently required to be filed with the county clerk
of each county in which the project will be located, to also
be filed with OPR. Conversely, requires notices of EIR
completion, currently required to be filed with OPR by a state
or local public agency, to also be filed with the county clerk
of each county in which the project will be located.
3)Requires notices currently required to be posted for 30 days
or the full duration of any statutory time period, whichever
is longer. Requires county clerks and OPR to post notices
within one business day and date stamp the notices
4)Requires that the time limits for CEQA litigation, which
commence on the date of notice filing, be based on the latest
AB 380
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posting date between a county clerk and OPR.
5)Authorizes OPR to collect a fee of up to $10 per notice from
agencies filing the notice, and authorizes an agency in turn
to recover its filing costs from the applicant.
FISCAL EFFECT
Additional costs to the Office of Planning and Research in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars range. Many of these
activities, however, are currently underway and costs would be
recoverable through new fee authority.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. Various time periods for public, trustee, and
responsible agency participation under CEQA are triggered by
the issuance of a variety of notices required by statue.
Under current law, where and how these various notices are
made public (if at all) substantially differs depending on the
type of notice, the nature of the project, and whether the
lead agency is a state agency or a local agency.
2)Background. CEQA provides a process for evaluating the
environmental effects of applicable projects approved or
undertaken by public agencies. For projects that are not
exempt from CEQA, an initial study is prepared to determine if
the projects may have a significant impact on the environment.
If the initial study shows no significant impacts, a
negative declaration is issued. If the project may
significantly impact the environment, a full Environmental
Impact Report (EIR) must be prepared, including the
identification of environmental impacts and required
mitigation, compliance and reporting measures intended to
reduce the environmental impacts to the extent feasible. CEQA
also provides for public process and legal challenges.
State agencies post their notices electronically at OPR's CEQA
net website, while local agencies post their notices with the
local county clerk-recorder's office. For some notices, there
is no requirement of public posting at all Additionally,
there is no clarity on what procedures CEQA's posting
requirements require of local county-clerk's offices.
AB 380
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Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081