BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 380
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 380 (Dickinson)
As Amended May 24, 2013
Majority vote
NATURAL RESOURCES 6-2 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 7-0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Chesbro, Garcia, |Ayes:|Achadjian, Levine, Alejo, |
| |Muratsuchi, Skinner, | |Bradford, Gordon, Mullin, |
| |Stone, Williams. | |Frazier |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Bigelow, Patterson | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, | | |
| |Bradford, | | |
| |Ian Calderon, Campos, | | |
| |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, | | |
| |Ammiano, Pan, Quirk, | | |
| |Weber | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Harkey, Bigelow, | | |
| |Donnelly, Linder, Wagner | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Establishes uniform procedures for electronic posting of
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documents by county
clerks and the Office of Planning and Research (OPR). Specifically,
this bill:
1)Requires specified CEQA notices to be filed with OPR, and posted
by OPR on a public, online database, including:
a) Decisions made by agencies with a certified regulatory
program, which are currently required to be filed with, and
posted by, the Natural Resources Agency.
AB 380
Page 2
b) Scoping meetings.
c) Preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR) or
negative declaration.
d) Completion of an EIR.
e) Approval of a project.
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.
3)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.
4)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.
5)Requires notices currently required to be posted for 30 days (or
20 days in the case of a notice of negative declaration) to be
posted for at least 30 days or the full duration of any statutory
time period, whichever is longer.
6)Requires that the time limits for CEQA litigation, which commence
on the date of notice filing, be based on the date the notice is
posted online by OPR.
7)Requires county clerks and OPR to post notices within one business
day and date stamp the notices.
8)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.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires a lead agency with the principal responsibility for
AB 380
Page 3
carrying out or approving a proposed project to prepare a negative
declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or EIR for its
action, unless the project is exempt from CEQA.
2)Requires a lead agency to make these and other documents,
including notices, comments, and responses, available to the
public, including specified individuals and agencies, such as
residents adjacent to a proposed project, and the OPR's State
Clearinghouse for projects reviewed by state agencies, and provide
documents directly to individuals upon request.
3)Requires a lead state agency to file a notice of determination
(NOD) with OPR and requires a lead local agency to file a NOD with
the appropriate county clerk(s). A lead agency is authorized, but
not required in most cases, to file a notice of exemption (NOE) if
it determines that a project is exempt from CEQA.
4)Authorizes judicial review of CEQA actions taken by public
agencies, following the agency's decision to carry out or approve
the project, subject to statutes of limitations ranging from 30 to
180 days:
a) Challenges alleging improper determination that a project
may have a significant effect on the environment, or alleging
an EIR does not comply with CEQA, must be filed within 30 days
of filing of the NOD.
b) Challenges alleging improper determination that a project is
exempt from CEQA must be filed within 35 days of filing of the
NOE, or 180 days if no notice has been filed.
c) Challenges alleging an agency has failed to determine
whether a project has a significant effect on the environment
must be filed within 180 days.
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 specified agencies, as well as any organization or
individual who has filed a written request for notice.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee,
AB 380
Page 4
additional cost to OPR in the less than $100,000 range. Activities
are currently underway and costs would be recoverable through new
fee authority.
COMMENTS : Public notice of lead agency actions and access to
documents is essential to CEQA's public participation purpose.
However, CEQA's various notice requirements have been enacted over
the years in a piecemeal fashion. Many of the procedures predate
common use of the Internet and current expectations about electronic
access to information. Local governments' use of electronic
document posting varies widely and there are no uniform
requirements. The state has gradually incorporated the use of
electronic information in the CEQA process. For example, since
2003, the State Clearinghouse within OPR, which coordinates the
state-level review of environmental documents pursuant to CEQA, has
distributed EIRs in CD-ROM format for state agency review and
comment. The Clearinghouse now offers most other environmental
documents in electronic format. The Clearinghouse also maintain
CEQAnet, an online searchable database of CEQA documents. The
CEQAnet database provides summaries of EIRs, negative declarations,
and other types of CEQA documents. The summaries include the
project title, project location, lead agency name, contact
information, and project description. At this time, CEQAnet does
not provide the full text of any environmental documents. Because
not all environmental documents are submitted to the State
Clearinghouse, CEQAnet is not a comprehensive database of all CEQA
documents in California. OPR is the process of updating CEQAnet,
which may improve its functionality and increase the scope of CEQA
documents available. This bill would establish uniform procedures
for lead agency CEQA documents, including requiring all lead agency
documents to be filed with and posted online by OPR.
According to the author, various time periods for public, trustee,
and responsible agency participation under CEQA are triggered by the
issuance of a variety of notices required by statute. 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.
State agencies post their notices electronically at OPR's CEQAnet
Web site, while local agencies post their notices with the local
AB 380
Page 5
county clerk-recorder's office. For some notices, there is no
requirement of public posting at all, or mandatory time frame for
how soon after issuance these notices must be posted, or mandate
that the date they are publicly posted is clearly and actually
recorded, yet, in most cases, the postings trigger short periods of
time for public or interested agency response. Additionally, there
is no clarity on what procedures CEQA's posting requirements require
of local county clerk's offices, subjecting these provisions to
abuse.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
FN: 0000961