BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 417
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 417 (Frazier)
As Amended June 13, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |70-2 |(April 25, |SENATE: |39-0 |(September 11, |
| | |2013) | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY : Establishes a California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) exemption for the approval of a bicycle transportation
plan, as defined, until 2018. Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes an exemption from CEQA for a bicycle
transportation plan for an urbanized area for restriping of
streets and highways, bicycle parking and storage, signal
timing, and related signage.
2)Requires a lead agency, prior to determining a plan is exempt,
to hold noticed public hearings, assess any traffic and safety
impacts, and include measures to mitigate those impacts.
3)Requires a lead agency to file a notice of any bicycle plan
exemption with the Office of Planning and Research and the
county clerk in the county in which the project is located.
4)Sunsets the bill's provisions on January 1, 2018.
The Senate amendments revise requirements applicable to a
separate exemption for bicycle lanes to provide that the lead
agency is not required to prepare an assessment of any traffic
or safety impacts of the project if those impacts have been
identified in specified CEQA reviews within the past five years
and any mitigation measures identified in the prior review are
incorporated into the bicycle lane project.
EXISTING LAW 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
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in the CEQA guidelines).
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : 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.
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.
In June 2005, San Francisco adopted its 2005 Bicycle Plan,
determining that the plan was exempt from CEQA based upon their
finding that there was no possibility that the bicycle plan
would have significant impacts on the environment. San
Francisco also adopted the bicycle plan's Network Improvement
Document, a five-year plan for funding and implementing the
bicycle plan. Petitioners challenged adoption of the 2005
Bicycle Plan and Network Improvement Document under CEQA and the
court granted the petition, finding that the plan and document
should have been reviewed under CEQA together as one project,
and that the two actions could have a significant impact on the
environment. The court issued a Preemptory Writ of Mandate in
2007, requiring San Francisco to conduct adequate environmental
review of the plan and document, and enjoined the city from
implementing any individual improvement projects until the
review was completed.
After reviewing the revised plan, the court indicated that
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"(t)he bulk of the draft EIR's analysis concerned impacts on
transportation, particularly impacts from the 60 near-term
improvements on 63 different intersections located throughout
San Francisco, as well as impacts on 12 transit corridors, 10
transit spot studies, and 13 parking and loading corridors."
The court also noted that the EIR identified mitigation measures
to minimize or eliminate many of the significant environmental
impacts identified in the EIR, including measures such as adding
or modifying traffic signals at intersections (lengthening green
light time or adding a green arrow), or modifying roadway
striping (changing shared lanes to exclusive turn lanes,
narrowing travel lanes, or eliminating or restricting on-street
parking). Subsequent to ruling against another appeal by the
plaintiffs, the court determined in 2010 that the report met the
requirements of CEQA.
AB 2245 (Smyth), Chapter 680, Statutes of 2012, established a
CEQA exemption for Class II bikeways (bike lanes) undertaken by
a city or county within an existing road right-of-way until
2017.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
FN: 0001508